Leicester FA 0-1 Birmingham FA Birmingham’s last gasp winner from Nuneaton’s Matthew Lamb means the Birmingham FA need to defeat Worcestershire or Northamptonshire to secure Section B of the inaugural Midland Youth Championship following yesterday’s 1-0 victory over Leicester. In the 6th minute, an excellent ball from Nick Heath was wasted with no Birmingham forward anticipating his cross. Leicester keeper Luke Hall dropped the ball from a Ryan Murphy cross in the 30th minute but again no Birmingham forward was able to capitalise. The visitors began to take control of the midfield and twice in a minute had excellent chances to take the lead. Debutant Robbie Scott was put through but shot wide and Tobias McIntosh had his fierce shot well saved by Hall. The early stages of the second half was scrappy until on the hour Scott once again was through on goal. This time Hall saved well. Leicester’s midfield duo of David Fisher and Joe Moran were also beginning to force the play but failed to threaten the impressive Aaron O’Malley in the Birmingham goal. O’Malley was forced to leave the game with a back muscle injury in the 63rd minute, replaced by Tamworth’s Will Stanage. Five minutes later Stannage kept Birmingham in the game with a point blank reaction save from Leicester substitute Ashley Morris. Eudell Spence was given his debut by Manager Martin Sweeney, replacing McIntosh, whilst the Birmingham central back three of Pringle, Crabtree and Skipper Geohaghon kept a tight rein on the three Leicester forwards giving Stannage a trouble free last twenty minutes. Birmingham slowly took control of the game; Nick Heath becoming a constant threat to the Leicester defence. However, the goal came late into injury time when Andy Crabtree should have headed Murphy’s far post corner home. The ball fell to Adam Hughes whose shot was deflected to Pringle. His follow up was cleared into the path of Lamb who hit an unstoppable shot from 30 yards. Team Spokesman, Steve Poole said: “We now have two games to win the trophy and then can hopefully look forward to playing the winners of Group A and look back on very respectable season. However, we still have some tough games on the horizon.” SQUAD: Aaron O’Malley (Lye Town), Simon Fitter (Kidderminster), Matthew Lamb (Nuneaton), Exodus Geoghaghan (Sutton Coldfield Town), Ashley Pringle (Bedworth Utd), Andrew Crabtree (Nuneaton), Nick Heath (Kidderminster), Adam Hughes (Sutton Coldfield Town), Ryan Murphy (Boldmere St Michaels), Robbie Scott (Marconi Coventry), Tobias McIntosh (Nuneaton) SUBS: Rob Rencher (Sutton Coldfield Town), Will Stannage (Tamworth) ON FOR O’MALLEY, Richard Langford (Kidderminster), Eudell Stence (Boldmere St Michaels) ON FOR McINTOSH, Craig Thomas (Rushall), David Blenkinsopp (Highway Sports) |