You cannot win a football match unless you can score a goal
Posted in General on 27. Sep, 2010
“You cannot win a football match unless you can score a goal.” He made it clear that he spread the responsibility beyond the hapless front pairing of Dwight Yorke and Emile Heskey, but, in truth, he was only being polite. Gronkjaer provided a consistent service of crosses from the flanks. It was Birmingham’s second successive single-goal home defeat this week.”It is easy to see our problems,” said the Birmingham manager, Steve Bruce. Palace, well-drilled, resourceful and dogged, soaked up the pressure, rode their luck and broke with pace and venom.
Birmingham, short of confidence, fluency and ideas, relied too much on their right-flank combination of the former Chelsea duo Mario Melchiot and Jesper Gronkjaer, their outstanding performers, and wasted several openings. This was billed as a grudge match, but there was neither soup, nor pizza, in sight and, at the final whistle, hordes of Birmingham City’s disgruntled supporters headed home as the remainder stood and booed. In their first top-flight meeting with the Blues since 1981, Iain Dowie’s Palace, courtesy of a clinical 41st-minute finish from their in-form marksman and former Birmingham player Andy Johnson, deservedly secured their first away win and third victory in four Premiership outings with a classic counter-attacking performance.
The goal, taken with cold-blooded finesse, was the highlight of an otherwise dour encounter. Then Friedel did what was required, standing up well to beat away Riise’s attempt to claim a late winner.. Kirkland saved Liverpool twice in little more than a minute, pushing substitute Jon Stead’s rising, goal-bound effort wide and then blocking a Dickov effort at point-blank range. Three attempts to halt the home side’s progress into their penalty area failed before Sami Hyypia, having seen Barry Ferguson stumble and lose possession, meekly gave the ball straight to Emerton, whose low, angled shot from the left was perfectly placed to beat Chris Kirkland.Now Hughes, perhaps, was daring to imagine Blackburn could prey on Liverpool’s insecurity and gain the victory that would take them off the bottom of the table. But in the second half, as in the first, Liverpool were at their best at the start, Baros escaping from Craig Short in pursuit of substitute Luis Garcia’s pass and having sufficient strength to hold off the defender’s attempts to recover the ball before firing past Friedel from close range.Both sides went close to gaining the decisive advantage and both goalkeepers performed heroically to ensure that neither did.
On both occasions, Liverpool had cause to reflect on poor defending.Caught square when Paul Dickov threaded the ball to Emerton on the left, they failed to cover Bothroyd, who arrived to convert the Australian winger’s cross.Liverpool wound up in a horrible mess as Emerton put Blackburn ahead. Instead, Blackburn, benefited from the return of Tugay in midfield, recovered to draw level through Jay Bothroyd and reached half-time in front after Brett Emerton scored in first-half stoppage time. But it was not long before the opening goal arrived, Blackburn’s defence undone as Riise timed his run to dart through behind their lines on the left, collecting Xabi Alonso’s pass in his stride before beating Friedel with a diagonal left-foot strike.Mark Hughes must have feared another uncomfortable 90 minutes. “He has gone to hospital, we shall have to keep our fingers crossed and wait and see,” the Spaniard said.Fellow striker Milan Baros said: “I heard a crack and thought it was broken.