ENGLISH LEAGUE CUP SEMI-FINALS, FIRST LEGS: West Ham Utd 2 Birmingham City 1:IF AVRAM Grant does survive as the manager of West Ham United he will know who to thank. His 10-man team was heading for a damaging draw in this first leg, and Grant for almost certain dismissal when Jonathan Spector cut a low ball back for the substitute Carlton Cole.
The striker failed to make proper contact and the ball dribbled towards the Birmingham City goalkeeper Ben Foster. Almost in slow motion, Foster tumbled off balance and Cole’s shot crawled through his legs and over the line.
Upon such moments can careers hinge. Had Grant enjoyed his Mark Robbins moment? That will become clear when the West Ham board meets today . The club might not even make it to Wembley but after an excellent first-half performance and a poor second-half one, scarred by Victor Obinna’s reckless red card, they somehow got the result. Grant must now hold his breath.
West Ham started aggressively;there was a sharpness about their work and they brimmed with a positive attitude. Grant might have given anything for the early goal and he got his wish on 13 minutes.
Mark Noble started and finished the move. It was the midfielder’s quick feet and mind that carried him past two blue shirts and into a dangerous position on the inside-right channel, from where he crossed to the far post.
Obinna headed goalwards and there followed a heart-stopping scramble, which saw Spector hook the ball across the face of the goal. Noble was lurking beyond the far post. The angle was tight but he let fly first time. The right-footed connection was sweet and, with Scott Dann obscuring Foster’s command of the near post, the ball crashed through them both.
The home crowd responded to their team’s energy while Birmingham fought simply to stay in the tie. Were it not for Foster, they might have been out of it by the interval. He made two excellent saves, from Matthew Upson’s early crack at the near post and Obinna’s 30th-minute blast, after the forward had checked inside after leading a quick West Ham counter.
Foster was also required to tip over both from Spector’s rasping drive and James Tomkins’ header from Scott Parker’s corner.
Birmingham manager Alex McLeish’s half-time team was not difficult to imagine: show you really want to play at Wembley.
Birmingham’s first-half misery was summed up by Dann being stretchered off after the whistle had gone but you got the feeling West Ham could not be as good for the second 45 minutes and the visitors could not be as bad.
The improvement in Birmingham was marked upon the restart. There was drive and urgency to their play. The equaliser almost came from one Sebastian Larsson corner, when Cameron Jerome’s header was smuggled off the line by Freddie Sears. Then it did come from another Larsson delivery, again dangerous, with Liam Ridgewell getting in front of Winston Reid to thump a header home.
The turnaround illustrated just how fragile confidence is at West Ham and the feeling was compounded when Obinna lost his head almost immediately after the goal. The on-loan Inter man had been arguably the star turn of the first half but before a defensive West Ham throw-in, he flicked his studs up and back into Larsson’s nether regions. The stupidity was almost surreal. It took a while to realise he had got himself sent off.
Birmingham sought to turn the screw. Upson was fortunate to escape the concession of a penalty when he shoved Barry Ferguson inside the area, while the substitute David Murphy flashed a header narrowly wide. Only one team looked like scoring the next goal but incredibly, and out of nothing, it was West Ham.
Guardian Service
WEST HAM UTD:Green; Reid, Tomkins, Upson, Spector, Faubert, Parker, Noble (Kovac 90), Sears (Hines 74), Piquionne (Cole 73), Obinna. Subs not used: Boffin, Spence, Boa Morte, Kovac.
BIRMINGHAM CITY: Foster; Carr, Johnson, Ridgewell, Dann (Murphy 46), Larsson (Zigic 87), Gardner, Ferguson, Fahey, Hleb (Beausejour 83), Jerome. Subs no used: Taylor, Jiranek, Mutch, Derbyshire.
Referee:Phil Dowd (Staffordshire)
