Birmingham 3 - 2 Rochdale

Rochdale are out of this season’s Carling Cup after losing 3-2 at the hands of Premier League side Birmingham City at St Andrew's.

A Gary Jones brace wasn’t enough to earn a passage through to the third round after assistant referee Nigel Murphy inexplicably awarded the Blues a dubious penalty just three minutes after the Dale captain had given Keith Hill’s men the lead.

Two quick fire goals after the interval set Birmingham on their way to the next round but Jones’ second fifteen minutes from time set up a tense finale.

After beating Championship side Barnsley in the first round, a second round tie away at Premier League opposition was always going to be huge task for Keith Hill’s men but they certainly gave their loftier hosts a game at a very wet and windy St Andrew's.

The Dale boss named one change from the side that lost to Colchester at the weekend, with Joe Thompson missing out completely and Andrew Tutte getting his first start in a Dale shirt after his loan move from Manchester City. Fellow loanee Josh Thompson made the bench following his season long loan from Scottish Premier side Celtic.

Alex McLeish made eight changes to the side that beat Blackburn Rovers in the Premier League on Saturday but with household names such as Maik Taylor, Lee Bowyer, James McFadden and Barry Ferguson named in the eighteen man squad, it was still strong opposition.

Rochdale hadn’t reached the third round of the League Cup since 1962, the year they reached the final, whilst The Blues had won their first match in this competition for the past six seasons.

The game started in a swirling wind coupled with driving rain, which added extra zip to proceedings, with Dale making the more positive start.

Anthony Elding chased down a long ball which saw veteran keeper Taylor come sliding out to clear with his feet. The ball fell to Tutte who tried to bend the ball towards the open goal but a defender blocked to avert any early danger.

The first attempt on target in the game also came the way of the visitors but O’Grady’s free header lacked power and Taylor saved comfortably.

The home side didn’t take long to impose themselves on the game; McFadden’s delightful through ball found the run of Lee Bowyer but the captain's clipped effort over the on rushing Lillis hit the outside of the near post and went wide.

Rochdale were making a real fist of things and making life rather uncomfortable for the Premier League side.

Elding should have done better when he directed a free header wide and then great work from O’Grady saw the striker jink into the box but his left footed effort went inches the wrong side of the upright.

The visitor’s presence in the home half of the pitch made it no real surprise when they took the lead on 25 minutes. Full back Scott Wiseman intercepted a cross field ball and made a dart forward in to Birmingham territory before feeding Tutte on the right. The Manchester City man chipped a delightful ball back to Wiseman who had continued his run into the box. Wiseman volleyed goalward only to see his effort parried by Taylor in the home goal but Gary Jones was there to stab home from four yards out to give Hill’s men a deserved lead.

The travelling fans were still celebrating when the major talking point of the whole game occurred. Three minutes after going behind, Alex McLeish’s men were awarded a very dubious spot kick by assistant referee Nigel Murphy. Matt Derbyshire and Marcus Holness were chasing down a long punt up field when the two players tangled in the box. The assistant referee awarded a corner before, and for no apparent reason, holding his flag across his chest to signal penalty. The referee, Mr Russell, who had just signalled for a corner had no option but to go with his assistant and pointed to the spot. This decision brought scenes of jubilation from the home faithful whilst the Dale players surrounded the assistant referee. It really was a poor decision, and as replays were shown around the press box, Birmingham striker Kevin Phillips, who was working as a pundit for television, agreed it was the softest penalty he had ever seen. James McFadden wasn’t put off by the uproar around him and comfortably dispatched the penalty into the top left hand corner.

Keith Hill’s men could have crumbled at this point but they responded well and snuffed out any further danger before the interval.

Birmingham made a change at the start of the second period, penalty hero McFadden was replaced by former Arsenal man Sebastian Larsson, who made an immediate impact for the Blues.

After Dale had seen their first corner result in audacious overhead kick by defender Craig Dawson flash wide, the home side had a corner of their own. Larsson floated a wonderful ball onto the head of Johnson whose knock down was met by full back David Murphy who drilled home from six yards out to hand the lead for the first time to Birmingham.

Hill’s men were knocked and went further behind seven minutes later. A scramble inside the Dale box saw Derbyshire bundle the ball over the line after Lillis had saved with Elding trying valiantly to stop the ball crossing the line but assistant referee Mr Law spotted the ball had crossed the line and signalled the goal.

It really did look like game over at 3-1 with Derbyshire and Larsson both breaking at speed with Rochdale looking rattled.

Elding had a great opportunity to pull Dale back into the tie but somehow fired horribly wide from six yards with the goal at his mercy. O’Grady, who terrorised the home defence all game, worked an opening and handed the chance to his strike partner on a plate but the former Stockport man got it totally wrong and scuffed wide.

The game looked as if it would just saunter along as the tempo had gone and the ‘oles’ rang round from the home fans, but Dale captain Gary Jones had other ideas. After a quiet spell for the Rochdale veteran he grabbed the game by the scruff of the neck. Industrious in midfield, Jones’ work rate created space and when O’Grady picked up on the left he squared to his captain who slotted home for the second time in the game.

The League One side really did start to believe the comeback was on but despite plenty of huffing and puffing, Dale couldn’t force the equaliser.

Defeat for Keith Hill’s men but they certainly didn’t disgrace themselves.  

Keith Hill said after the game: "The performance was good, the result wasn’t. In three weeks time the supporters and the general public will be looking at the result.

"We can take heart from the performance, and the players out on display today were worthy contestants to a very good Premier League side.

"It’s difficult to assess the game from the sideline when you’re so emotionally involved in managing from the side. That’s what you have to do with a young squad; you have almost got to play the game for them at times until they become more experienced.

"It was looking good, it was game plan working. We went 1-0 up but their first goal should have been avoided. I’m not too sure if it was a penalty, I think there was a bit of time spent deliberating and I think that caused confusion.

"When you go 1-0 up against Premier League side, you have got to make sure that you don’t concede so soon after scoring. I’m disappointed with that but I thought we came back into the game well although we didn’t start the second half well. We knew that Birmingham would come at us, I don’t think they were quite top notch in the first half so we expected that response and in that response they got two goals.

"The game drifted into nothingness and then we got the goal that gave us hope and belief and I thought we deserved an equaliser but we didn’t so we move on."

Talking about the penalty incident, Hill said: "It’s difficult from our position to make an assessment, you have to watch it again on DVD to actually get the opportunity to see if they made the right decision, but I thought it looked an ugly challenge and when you’re in the box like that, anything can be given. It wasn’t an ideal defensive situation to be in, when two bodies come together anything can be given and it was. You can’t legislate for mistakes from officials so why bother talking about them?

"It’s been a really good experience. We were so close on the night but we have to balance ourselves as quickly as we can for the games coming up and with performances like that we should still be a League One team next season.

"We are on a steep learning curve and the League is a massive learning curve but we have to turn performances into points and if we do that we will be ok.

"The longer it goes without a victory the confidence will drain from the players and the supporters and the public will be right in their assumption that we are going to be relegation favourites this season.

"Gary Jones has been excellent during my time at this club. He’s playing in a slightly different position which is allowing him to get into the box and score goals. It was his second brace this season; it would have been nice if he could have got a hat-trick. He’s a shining example for the young players that we are trying to nurture and educate. That’s our philosophy.

"It’s a quick turnaround before we play Brentford but from a financial point of view we had to take this game on a Thursday with the TV money that’s on offer and there will be no excuses after the Brentford game."

 

Birmingham City 3-2 Rochdale

McFadden 28 (p) Murphy (48) Derbyshire (54)
Jones (25, 76) Att: 6431

Rochdale
Lillis, Widdowson, Holness (Josh Thompson 63), Dawson, Wiseman, Jones (c), Kennedy, Barry-Murphy, Tutte (Done 63), Elding (Akpa-Akpro 63), O’Grady
Subs (not used): Edwards, Goodall, Redshaw, Andre

Birmingham City
Taylor, Murphy, Bowyer (c), Johnson, O’Connor, Derbyshire (Zigic 65), Dann, McFadden (Larsson 46), Michel, Fahey, Vallas (Redmond 77)
Subs (not used): Foster, Gardner, Jerome, Ferguson

Referee: M Russell (Herts)
Assistant Referees: G Law (Leics) N Murphy (Notts)
4th Official: S Rushton (Staffs)

Birmingham 
Cautions: None
Possession: 52% 
Attempts (on target): 8 
Fouls: 4 5
Corners: 6

Rochdale
Cautions: None
Possession: 48%
Attempts (on target): 6
Fouls: 5
Corners: 1