Birmingham City 2 v Coventry City 2 AET - BCFC won 4-1 on penalties - FA Cup R4 Replay

Tuesday 4th February 2020

FA Cup Fourth Round Replay

at St. Andrew's Stadium

Birmingham City (0) 1 (90 mins) 2 (AET)

Harlee Dean 90+2, Jeremie Bela 120

Coventry City (0) 1 (90 mins) 2 (AET)

Amadou Bakayoko 50, Maxime Biamou 114

Birmingham City won 4-1 on penalties

Attendance: 11,680 (inc. 4,515 away fans)

Birmingham City:

Camp, Harding, Roberts, Dean, Pedersen, McEachran (Boyd-Munce 19), Sunjic, Maghoma (G Gardner 103), Concannon (Bela 57), Bellingham (Jutkiewicz 70), Montero.

Unused subs - Clarke-Salter, Keita, Trueman (GK)

Coventry City:

Marosi, Hyam, Pask, McFadzean, Dabo, Shipley (Allen 72), Kelly (Walsh 106), Westbrooke (O’Hare 72), Mason, Biamou, Bakayoko (Godden 82).

Unused subs - Jones, Williams, Wilson (GK)

"You are either a glutton for punishment! Or completely mad! Or an obsessive combination of both!"

And, to be fair, I tend to agree with what these voices in my head had been telling me earlier this evening.

Especially as I circumnavigated the rush-hour traffic like a deranged 'Skid Solo' (RIP) wannabe, to get to the railway station on time, to travel to St. Andrew's for tonight's game.

Alas, even my inner demons weren't talking to me on the way home... but hey! They seldom have anything nice to say about anybody... and besides, sleep is vastly overrated anyway.

And so it came to pass, that Birmingham City will now face Leicester City at the King Power Stadium in the next round, on Tuesday 3rd March. 

That's the correct date (for the time being) by the way, a Tuesday night, though that could in all probability be swapped for Wednesday 4th or Thursday 5th if the game is picked to be televised. Because none of the Fifth Round games are being played on a Friday, Saturday, or even a Sunday this season.

The original tie between these two sides, on Saturday 25th January was, not to put too fine a point on it, something of a listless, no frills and no thrills, ugly as sin, goalless draw.
In fact, it was the kind of lacklustre encounter that gets dismal nil-nil stalemates a really, really bad name.

But Blues put in a more solid and spirited display, when they beat promotion chasing Nottingham Forest 2-1 at the weekend, which gave those who made the effort to get along to this rematch, a bit more hope that tonight would be an improvement on the initial game at St. Andrew's... that even taking into account the added novelty factor of Birmingham City playing away from home, at their own ground, and the inevitable 'good-natured' (to a point) banter between the rival fans that filled the air, still couldn't stir up much enthusiasm from those present, on what was, in essence, an anti-climatic and dreary afternoon.
But that was then... and this is now.

Pep Clotet's Blues went into this game unbeaten in their previous six games, while the visitors hadn't lost in their last ten outings, but one way or another, something had to give tonight... and the outcome needed to be decided right here, right now, because there is no such thing as a second replay anymore.
In fact if some of the richer clubs had their way, there wouldn't be any replays at all, or even any domestic cup competitions anymore, because their players are allegedly facing burnout from having to partake in too many of these sort of games.

Which in reality actually means that they want to extend the European competitions to involve even more moneyed clubs, i.e, elitist, selfish and greedy institutions, just like themselves, while jetting off to sunnier climes to take part in an ever growing number of prestige international tournaments... because that is a far more profitable route for the greedy bar-stewards to take, than splitting the gate receipts down the middle with Football League or even non-league riff-raff.
And guess what? When/if they get their way (and I strongly suspect that they will)... their pampered superstars will still be playing just as often, but travelling considerably more.
Burnout my arse! Well, so to speak.

Initially, as this re-run of the original horror show began to unfold, I would go so far as to say that the entertainment on offer was on a par with that first meeting.
League One Coventry were effectively dictating the pace of the game, and not giving their hosts an inch of breathing space, or wriggle room, to coin a phrase.
Perusing the Championship league table, it tends to suggest that barring a couple of months of catastrophic results, or a meteoric run of wins between now and the end of the season, Blues aren't far short of being completely clear from the risk of plunging headlong into a relegation scrap, nor are they likely to get anywhere near the promotion play-offs this season. So why on earth did the team that they fielded suggest that they weren't entirely taking having a tilt at a decent cup run ever so seriously... that said, Coventry had chopped and changed their starting line up too.

Lee Camp is watching you.
It's an omen... a prophecy even.

Of course, as the games begin to rack up thick and fast... Blues are away at Bristol City on Friday night and then Barnsley next Tuesday, squad rotation is an integral and necessary part of Clotet's game management. But personally, I would have preferred to see both teams going at each other, hell for leather, at full strength. Or am I just showing my own naivety at this juncture?

The attendance tonight of: 11,680 (which included 7,165 Blues supporters and 4,515 away fans) was 9,513 down on the original crowd figure from last week, which proves that many people really no longer give a flying one about the FA Cup. It seems that while the fat cats are wanting to amend the format of the competition to suit their own ends, the rank and file clubs and supporters are simply turning their backs on it in their droves and giving up on what used to be known as 'the greatest cup competition in the world'.

It was great to see young Jack Concannon making his first team debut for Blues tonight... and he held his own, played very well and didn't disappoint anybody who'd shown faith in him to make the step up. Although I have voiced my reservations about several squad players making up the ranks, I'll concede that there is always the risk of anyone picking up an injury during any game... and as if to illustrate that point, there was a lengthy first half stoppage after just fourteen minutes, when Josh McEachran was stretchered off with what appeared to be a serious knee problem, while Jacques Maghoma seemed to be struggling when he was replaced in extra time. Caolan Boyd-Munce took to the field in the place of McEachran, another young prospect making his first team debut, who looked comfortable in the middle of the park, slotting in comfortably to a side that had six changes to the one that started on Saturday against Forest.

Coventry had set themselves up to contain and frustrate Blues (and the home crowd), keeping things tight across the midfield and getting forward to good effect, by feeding the ball into the path of runners through the channels, which kept the home defence busy all night and, to be fair, Mark Robins' side came very close to doing a job on their Championship landlords.

I might even go as far as to suggest, that over the entire course of the game, the Sky Blues probably didn't deserve to go out of the FA Cup tonight... but Birmingham's never say die attitude and propensity to 'fight 'til the end', as the words to a traditional St. Blues battle hymn go, saw them force the game into extra-time, before pulling level again inside the very last-minute to take the game to a penalty shoot-out.

A dramatic grandstand finish, or in actual fact, two of them, before the added drama of a shoot-out to decide who went through, never looked to be on the cards for the vast majority of the game.

Amadou Bakayoko almost opened the scoring for the visitors, when Zain Westbrooke picked out his run with a well weighted pass from the half way line, but as he twisted and turned to get his shot away, under pressure from Lee Camp. Marc Roberts had moved across to cover is keeper and comfortably dealt with the resulting knock.

Jefferson Montero had two half decent efforts before half-time for Blues and Boyd-Munce was unlucky to see his effort fizz over the bar shortly after the restart, but it was 'Cov' who finally struck the first blow, when Fankaty Dabo nudged the ball forward to Westbrooke, who threaded a defence splitting pass into the feet of Bakayoko inside the hosts area... and his effort looped up off of and over a combination of Camp and Roberts as they tried to block the former Walsall forwards shot, and bounced into the goal. 

The momentum of Bakayoko's hit meant that his on target strike would've found the back of the net anyway, so by rights he should claim it as his own. Even if some of the press association chaps present have credited it as a Roberts own goal. I'm fairly sure that Blues number four has no wish to claim it! But the Sierra Leonean will want it... so case dismissed.

Both sides had chances in the second half as the tempo began to pick up, but as ninety minutes came and went, the Sky Blues were still holding onto the lead that solitary goal had given them.

The Kop, the only stand open to Blues fans tonight (the Coventry supporters only used the lower tier of the Railway End/Gil Marrick Stand) was haemorrhaging spectators at a rapid rate, towards the exits and had been for most of the last fifteen minutes, but two minutes into stoppage time, Maghoma got free on the right and crossed to Harlee Dean who glanced a header past Marko Marosi to even things up.

Cue near pandemonium in the car park, as Blues fans rushed towards the open gates to get back into the ground, upon hearing the noise of cheering and celebration.

Right at the death, Montero's cross was met by Jutkiewicz, a seventieth minute substitute, but his towering header crashed back off the bar.

I nipped down into the concourse to have a quick call of nature before extra-time started and met the near stampede of returning fans head on. And when I re-emerged onto the Kop, it was pretty much a case of fit in where you can. The dynamic of the crowd had changed dramatically and was far more upbeat.

"Is there a fire drill!?"

Camp and Marosi were both called into action during the first period of extra time, but as halfway point arrived, the score was still 1-1.

However, with six minutes left to go, Coventry were in front again, when Callum O'Hare, who missed an open goal at the end of the first game between these sides, atoned for his error by slipping a pass through the eye of a needle to Maxime Biamou, who had the time and space to guide the ball past Camp.

Matt Godden had a late chance to put the game beyond Blues reach, but he inexplicably missed with his attempted lob over Camp.

In the very last minute, Bela surged forward into the right channel and launched the ball into Coventry's six yard box... and it ended up in the back of the net via the post.

Bela has a party piece as regards long range shots and special goals, but you'd have to ask, was that one a deliberate attempt or an over-hit cross? But hey! Who even cares?

Penalties would now decide who was travelling to Leicester for the next round now and they were going to be taken in front of the empty Tilton End.

But it wasn't empty for very long though, as hundreds of excited Blues fans rushed across from the Kop and massed behind the goal... where many of them should've been allowed to watch from in the first place. There was no aggro or ill-feeling involved, it was just a spontaneous and good-humoured outpouring of joy, mixed with no small amount of relief... and credit where it is due, the police and stewards, who saw the situation for what it was and handled things very well... even if they were heavily outnumbered and had no chance whatsoever of intervening and stopping the human tide anyway.

Penalty shoot-out:

Jutkiewicz took responsibility for the first kick and buried it emphatically to the left of Marosi.

Godden evened things up with another well struck effort into the left hand side of the net.

Bela once again chose the bottom left hand corner and restored Blues lead.

Liam Walsh was thwarted by Camp who kept the ball out with his foot.

Gary Gardner broke with the rapidly emerging tradition and placed his kick in the right hand corner.

Jamie Allen's effort was then pushed away by Camp. 

Advantage Birmingham... who were now leading 3-1 after three kicks apiece.

If Blues captain Dean kept his composure and scored, it was game over. 

He did... and it was.

Wow! As everybody spilled out onto the surrounding streets, the fans of both teams, just as much as any of the the players, looked thoroughly exhausted... and worn out after having gone through the whole gamut of human emotions.

"Technically, I thought that was a very poor game!", boomed a large bearded man, to nobody in particular. Maybe it was, but if he was unmoved by the drama, the tension, the joys and sorrows, the mind-phucking despair, the sheer exuberance and the extra large serving of disbelief... then that says far more about him that it does anybody else. Thankfully nobody responded to his 'words of wisdom' and sans the audience he obviously craved, he shut up. Which was nice... otherwise I might have had to nudge him gently towards the traffic that was trying to make a quick getaway from the scene, to avoid the imminent invasion of pedestrians all over the roundabout and expressways, bringing everything in it's path to a standstill. 

Typically, the late train out of Bordesley back to the city centre, had been cancelled, but thankfully the local taxi drivers were out in force taking advantage of the situation and twenty minutes later, I was heading back home on the last train out of New Street.

Coventry City, who have only lost three League One games all season, will be back at St. Andrew's on Saturday and Tuesday, when Bolton Wanderers and then Portsmouth are the visitors, while Blues have back to back away games, at Bristol City on Friday, followed by Barnsley on Tuesday... it's all go innit!