Birmingham City 1 Queens Park Rangers 0
Kevin Phillips may be a frustrated man at his lack of starting appearances for Birmingham City but he gave manager Alex McLeish a reminder of his importance by scoring the winner as Blues moved menacingly into top spot.
The seasoned striker did what he has been doing all his career, the skill which separates him from so many of his peers, by popping up in the right place at the right time to convert Garry O’Connor’s cross from close range in time added on at the end of the first half.
The 35-year-old has been used as a late substitute in recent weeks but was given a run alongside O’Connor in attack as McLeish again rotated his strikers. After a slow start, the duo combined superbly for the goal and showed glimpses of their all-round talents, much to their manager’s joy.
“The timing of the goal was absolutely brilliant,” a delighted McLeish said. “I thought Phillips and O’Connor led the line well. They have been on the bench lately and they have shown they will face up to the competition up there, because it keeps everyone on their toes and freshens people up.
“We don’t want to flog them to death but when they come in, they have to show us what they can do. We are in the Championship trying to get to the Premier League and we can’t leave people behind, they have to be ready when we need them.”
The goal certainly kick-started Blues after another laboured performance in the first half. Rangers manager Iain Dowie set up his giant side to be uncompromising and physical, but they also played the better football in the first period and it took Birmingham 30 minutes to have their first legal effort on goal.
Blues did put the ball in the net inside two minutes but defender Liam Ridgewell was guilty of a glaring and embarrassing Maradona-style handball as he beat Rangers goalkeeper Radek Cerny to a Sebastian Larsson free- kick. It was cheating of the most blatant kind and to compound the matter, Ridgewell at first look puzzled when the goal was correctly ruled out; however, he did accept the yellow card that followed without complaint, and rightly so.
Lee Cook, Mikele Leigertwood and Martin Rowlands all had long-range efforts on goal for the visitors as Blues were again slow to get going but with Ridgewell and particularly Radhi Jaidi in outstanding form again, the Rangers’ strike partnership of Dexter Blackstock and Patrick Agyemang were almost anonymous.
Blues came out early after half-time for an impromptu warm-up session and it worked as they started the second period brightly. In fact, they played their best football of the season and even after the influential Lee Carsley limped off with a dead leg, they didn’t drop the tempo.
Quincy continued his recent impressive form after he was switched to the right wing while Kemy Agustien is improving game by game. The Dutchman looks as if he has now come to terms with the pace and demands of Championship football and his distribution was impressive at times.
David Murphy went close with a snap shot from the edge of the area and Jaidi forced a great save from Cerny with a towering downward header, but Blues couldn’t force the second goal that would have killed off the game. They needn’t have worried, however, as Rangers looked less potent as the game went on and certainly didn’t appear to justify their tag of one of the pre-season promotion favourites.
As for Blues, they are top of the league and are just starting to stretch their muscles. “It was much better than the last two home games,” McLeish said. “It was uneasy against Doncaster and Blackpool but today I felt really secure.
“Until we made the switch of putting Quincy on the right, we were never really in control but after that, for a good part of the second half, we played as well I have seen us here.”
Once again, a gate of 18,498 will disappoint the owners, especially David Sullivan who uses his regular matchday magazine column to knock the stay-away fans. However, McLeish is less critical.
“I still thought we had a good crowd and a good response,” McLeish said. “Wherever you go and whatever team you support, the home team need to try to get the crowd going and it took us a wee while to do that.
“Once we had made that change, there was a lot more fluidity to our game and we started to give them something to cheer about. It is up to us to get them going.
“The away support is always vociferous from start to finish. Sometimes, the home support at any club need help to get going.”
Scorers: Phillips (45).
BIRMINGHAM CITY: Birmingham: Maik Taylor, Parnaby, Jaidi, Ridgewell, Murphy, Larsson, Carsley (Nafti, 50), Agustien, Owusu-Abeyie (McFadden, 75), Phillips (Jerome, 80), O’Connor. Substitutes: Doyle, Martin Taylor.
QUEENS PARK RANGERS: Cerny, Ramage (Connolly, 87), Hall, Stewart, Delaney, Rowlands (Ledesma, 80), Leigertwood, Mahon (Buzsaky, 68), Cook, Blackstock, Agyemang. Subs: Camp, Parejo.
Referee: Andy D’Urso (Essex)
Bookings: Blues – Ridgewell (deliberate handball); QPR – Leigertwood (foul).
Attendance: 18,498.
