Where Paul Durkin succeeded Steve Bennett failed.... More interested in fans watching him striking a pose rather than free flowing football, Bennett halted play wherever possible. On a number of occasions both teams had been at the receiving end of a shrugged off foul retaining possession, only for Bennett to blow up and call a halt to proceedings. Pedantic placements of free kicks and throw ins, blind eyes to shirt tugging and tripping and allowing defenders to use forwards as spring boards meant that for much of the game neither side was really allowed to find a rhythm. On the plus sides he spotted the elbow on Kenna and there was no argument about the inevitable red card and Blues go yet another game without a booking. The latter is more to do with refs in general being less heavy handed in waving the coloured cards. Rating 6/10
Fairs league anyone?
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Match Stats:Birmingham City 2 Southampton 1 Clemence 16
Kenna 67Ormerod 6 Starting line-up Sub'd Taylor Tebily Cunningham Purse Kenna Dunn 1 (88) Clemence Hughes Johnson Forssell Morrison 2 (89) Substitutes Sub'd Carter Kirovski Bennett Cisse John Competition Barclaycard Premiership
Saturday 10th January 2004Match Statistics 11 Goal Attempts 9 5 On target 6 5 Off target 3 1 Woodwork 0 7 Corners 10 14 Fouls 23 1 Offside 1 Cards shown Delap (18) unsporting behaviour Prutton (69) serious foul play Other Information Referee Bennett, S ,Kent Attendance Starting line-up Sub'd Niemi Dodd Svensson Higginbotham Hall Prutton Svensson Fernandes 1 (71) Delap 2 (85) Ormerod 3 (72) Beattie Substitutes Sub'd Pahars 2 (85) McCann 1 (71) Phillips 3 (72) Kenton Blayney