EPL News: Birmingham City versus Everton 0 – 2, Full time Analysis (Part 3)
The Birmingham City fans had gone wild by now and crazy chants and morale boosts were at their paramount height, but the own goal by Roger Johnson led all the hype crashing down. Pin drop silence apart from cheers and celebrations
from the Everton squad could be heard and that from there was the noise heard till the end of the game.
Later, Leon Osman flew another cross in onto the near post but Foster intercepted it again. Johnson was hyped up after that and tolerated no loose ball in the box, clearing it on first sight.
Nearly all other teams in all competitions in England had won a match before this, all but Everton, and therefore this victory was to bore as a good luck charm for the club. This also happened to be Everton’s 1st away
league goal this season and no doubt it was a deserved one despite the way in which it came.
There was a moment of high drama after the goal however as Birmingham City players huddled up against the referee in order to explain to him that the tackle by Leighton Baines on Stephen Carr was unjust, henceforth a penalty should
be awarded.
Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish made his 1st substitution in the match at the 70th minute mark as Nikola Zigic replaced Keith Fahey therefore now City had readjusted themselves to a 4-4-2 formation.
Bowyer’s chance to score came next as Scott Dann made a mistake when he headed back the ball to the keeper but Tim Cahill being a veteran knew exactly what to do. He controlled the ball impeccably and then volleyed the ball over
the bar.
David Moyes was intent on making changes too as he brought on John Heitinga to replace Yakubu Ayegbeni. In the end Everton became defensive in order to protect their lead with Jerome making way for Matt Derbyshire.
After that came the injury time that saw Cahill increase the Everton score to 2-0, which came on the header of Baines. In the making, faithful of Everton at their away journey went wild and it is hoped that as Everton has finally
broken its curse it will be able to perform with higher standards in the future.
The lineup for Birmingham City is 26 Ben Foster, 15 Scott Dann, 5 Roger Johnson, 6 Liam Ridgewell, 2 Stephen Carr, 4 Lee Bowyer, 12 Barry Ferguson, 18 Keith Fahey, 7 Sebastian Larsson, 10 Cameron Jerome and 22 Alexander Hleb.
Substitutions: 9 Kevin Phillips, 1 Maik Taylor, 14 Matt Derbyshire, 19 Nikola Zigic, 28 Martin Jiránek, 17 Michel and 3 David Murphy.
The lineup for Everton is 24 Tim Howard, 15 Sylvain Distin, 6 Phil Jagielka, 3 Leighton Baines, 18 Phil Neville, 10 Mikel Arteta, 25 Marouane Fellaini, 21 Leon Osman, 23 Seamus Coleman, 22 Yakubu Aiyegbeni and 17 Tim Cahill.
Substitutions: 2 Tony Hibbert, 5 John Heitinga, 7 Diniyar Bilyaletdinov, 19 Magaye Gueye, 1 Jan Mucha, 16 Jermaine Beckford, and Ross Barkley.
The match eventually ended at 2-0; Everton emerging as the conquerors. Nonetheless by the end of the match the possession by each team was far closer than before; Everton having 51% and Birmingham 49%. Also Everton had managed
12 shots on goal from which 3 were successful; Birmingham on the other hand had just 6 shots, none of which were on target.
Corner kicks were also were 6 to Birmingham and 5 to Everton. Offsides committed were ironically more from Birmingham as they were labelled 4 times in comparison of Everton’s 2. However Birmingham did register lesser fouls than
Birmingham with 11-5.
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