COVENTRY CITY 3-2 BIRMINGHAM CITY
CAPITAL CUP SECOND ROUND 28/08/12 at the Ricoh Arena
Team: Murphy, Hussey, Edjenguele, Willis (Christie 62), Brown, Baker, Jennings, Kilbane, Barton (McSheffrey 79), Elliott, McDonald (Ball 91). SNU Dunn, Malaga, O’Donovan, Daniels.
Birmingham; Doyle, Spector, Davies (Mills 70), Caldwell, Gordon (Redmond 65), Burke, Mullins, Gomis, Ambrose, King, Lovenkrands (Rooney 78). SNU Lukis, Ibanez, Morrison, Elliott
HT CCFC 2-2 BCFC FT CCFC 2-2 BCFC ET1 CCFC 3-2 BCFC ET2 CCFC 3-2 BCFC
ATT 10,859
GOALS Peter Lovenkrands (3), Cody McDonald (18), Kevin Kilbane (21), Jon Spector (44), Carl Baker (96)
Referee D.Whitestone Assts Mark Jones and David Richardson. Fourth Official Anthony Tankard.
Booked Edjenguele, McDonald, Mullins, Gomis
Man Of The Match – Carl Baker took the votes from Kevin Kilbane, Steve Jennings and William Edjenguele
WEATHER: It rained on and off all night.
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The worst time to play a team is when they have sacked their manager and Birmingham City found this out when they were dumped out of the Capital One Cup Second Round by Coventry City, who had a 3-2 extra time victory.
This was ironically, probably, the game which cost Andy Thorn his job as manager, depending on who you believe. The prize money from scraping a win at Dagenham, the being drawn against a local team who brought a decent following and the television revenue from a game being shown around the world on stations such as Al Jeereza, all meant that the Sky Blues now had the money to make the change in management that they didn’t in the summer.
As expected, Richard Shaw, who was dressed like he had been to a funeral! and Lee Carsley were placed in charge of the team and they moved Reece Brown to his more preferred position of centre back and brought in Jordan Willis at right back against a Birmingham side which had former City loanee Colin Doyle in goal and Marlon King up front.
There was a good atmosphere in the ground with both sets of fans singing before Birmingham were awarded a third minute free kick. Reece Brown pulled off his man and Ambrose aimed the free kick in the direction of the now unmarked Peter Lovenkrands and the former Rangers and Newcastle player headed into the CT Stand goal to put Birmingham ahead.
Marlon King, when he could stand on his own two feet, won a corner at which Davies stuck out a foot directing the ball into the arms of Joe Murphy who tonight was looking pretty in pink.
In the 12th minute, King pulled the ball back for Chris Burke who hit the bar.
Now, had that gone in, the Sky Blues could have been heading out of the tie but once, the players realised that they could compete with Birmingham when the ball was on the deck, they started to play the sort of football that Lee Carsley, a man no stranger to Birmingham supporters, along with Greg Rioch had the U18’s playing last season.
Much to the delight of the City support, City attacked and scored not one goal but two goals in the space of three minutes.
Kevin Kilbane was involved in both. The first saw him play a ball across the area, past Davies and onto the left foot of Cody McDonald who smashed it past Doyle.
Then, Carl Baker got the ball on the right and delivered a ball into the path of Kevin Kilbane who fired in a shot, which left Doyle on his backside and the ball in the Birmingham net in front of their fans, who were now getting back the banter they had dished out when ahead.
Every City player on the pitch was giving it their all. They challenged and matched the Championship club in every department, even at times causing rash clearances from the Blues defence.
However, just before the interval, Birmingham put together a well worked move of their own and Jon Spector was allowed to thunder a shot past the helpless Murphy and send the sides in level at the interval.
The support from both sets of fans was good as the second half got underway. However, some of the Blues support let themselves down when youngster Jordan Willis limped off in the 62nd minute in front of the East Stand and received some out of order abuse from some of the visiting fans before making it back to the sanctuary of the technical area where he was spoken to by Richard Shaw.
One person in the CT Stand who decided that he did not want to give Colin Doyle the ball back, and decided to play volleyball instead, was ejected from the stadium.
Birmingham boss Lee Clark made two changes and in the 79th minute, Adam Barton received great applause when he was replaced by Gary McSheffrey.
Both sides won corners in a very evenly matched finish which saw Cody McDonald replaced by Callum Ball a minute into second half stoppage time.
“Don’t Stop Believing” blared out of the tannoy as the teams regrouped in front of the main stand for the start of extra time.
Kilbane fired wide and Brown conceded two corners but tonight in what was City’s best performance since the away 3-0 victory at Portsmouth in April 2011, there was no need to stop believing as Carl Baker beat two defenders to a Hussey cross and fired a shot which again Doyle, who was by now carrying an an injury watched go past him into the net, sparking scenes of delight amongst the Sky Blues support in the ground and probably amongst those watching around the world.
Gomis sent a 25 yarder off the top of the bar and Jennings fired wide before we moved into the last fifteen minutes and then possible penalties.
The effort from every City player continued to be put in and although Birmingham might have had a penalty late on, the Sky Blues were in Thursday's League Cup Third Round draw after a night of football that Coventry City supporters will cherish.