City Barton, Cole
Birmingham Butt
City James, Mills, Thatcher, Dunne, Jordan, Sinclair, Barton, Reyna, Musampa, Cole, Vassell – subs Sibierski(87), Sun(72), Onuoha(unused), de Vileger(unused), B Wright-Phillips(90)
Birmingham Taylor, Melchiot, Cunningham, Upson, Clapham, Pennant, Butt, Clemence, Gray, Pandiani, Forssell – subs Lazaridis(77), Izzet(65), Kilkenny(unused), Tebily(unused), Vaesen(unused)
ANDY COLE CELEBRATES GRABBING THE WINNER
While Birmingham City never truly make St Andrews a fortress, few teams relish visiting the Midlands Blues in their own backyard. City went down 1-0 last season and were losing by that same score when Nicky Butt found himself with a clear shot on goal and had sufficient time to fire the ball past David James to give the home side a platform to go on and dominate. But instead City showed their battling qualities and the visitors fashioned out a cracking equaliser when Trevor Sinclair, Joey Barton and Darius Vassell carved the home defence open to level matters on 20 minutes. Better was to come moments after the break when Sinclair’s deep cross found Cole who smashed home a terrific strike that also proved to be the winner, which was no more than Pearce’s side deserved.
CITY Mag Sept 2005
