BIRMINGHAM 1 BOLTON 0 (nil)

Blues: Maik Taylor, Tebily, Cunningham, Martin Taylor, Sadler, Pennant, Johnson, Butt (Forssell 30), Clemence (Lazaridis 8), Jarosik, Heskey, Lazaridis (Dunn 86).
Subs Not Used: Vaesen, Campbell.
Booked: Pennant.
Goals: Jarosik 37.
Trotters: Jaaskelainen, O'Brien (Hunt 45), Ben Haim, N'Gotty, Pedersen, Giannakopoulos, Nolan (Vaz Te 86), Faye, Okocha, Diouf (Borgetti 68), Davies.
Subs Not Used: Walker, Nakata.
Att: 26,493
Ref: C Foy

A twenty-five yard pile driver from Jarosik secured the desperately needed three points. The Czech international should have added a second minutes later when Blues best move of the night swept down field only for Jiri to miss the target from 18 yards.
Blues’ injury list gained another two candidates when Clemence went of after only 8 minutes without making serious contact with the ball and 30 minutes saw the end of Butt. The inclusion of Lazaridis and Forssell gave Blues a more attacking look but were forced to sacrifice mid field control.
Blues threatened very little other than that and defended for most of the second half. Forssell came closest to adding a second with a twenty-yard shot that went narrowly wide.
Blues have now gone 2 games without conceding and have been pinned back in their own half for two thirds of the time. Bolton’s route one football gave Blues little real trouble but not retaining possession made the job more difficult than it need have been.
17th place in the league is heady height indeed but my the air sure tastes better up here!
From no hope to some hope is a massive shift for Steve Bruce’s boys. 10 more points from the remaining games would do nicely thank you.

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