Colwill caps
By TIM NASH at St Andrew’s
PUT your hat on Huddersfield to win promotion after they bullied Birmingham to rule the second city on Peaky Blinders Day at St Andrew’s.
Levi Colwill’s (right) effort, which deflected in off Gary Gardner, and one from Lewis O’Brien saw Carlos Corberan’s side stretch their unbeaten run to 15 games and climb to third in the table.
Juninho Bacuna and
Onel Hernandez hit the woodwork for Birmingham in an improved second-half performance, but ultimately the Terriers coasted home as they made it three straight wins and 31 points from their last 45 available.
Birmingham feared it was not going to be their day when they lost striker Lyle Taylor to injury in the warm-up, and then saw makeshift centre-back Maxime Colin depart to a knock in the 25th minute.
Huddersfield took a 27th-minute lead with the first serious attack on a day when Birmingham paid tribute to the final series of Peaky Blinders in the programme and the team ran out to the theme tune.
Sorba Thomas’ inswinging corner found on-loan Chelsea defender Colwill at the far post, he chested the ball and it went in off Gardner.
It was a timely birthday present for Colwill, who turned 19 yesterday.
Neil Etheridge denied Huddersfield’s O’Brien then was smartly off his line to stop
clean-through Jordan Rhodes.
O’Brien made it 2-0 in the 44th minute.
Gardner made a real hash of his clearance across his own box and Jeremie Bela could not keep out O’Brien, who sidefooted home.
Birmingham improved after the break but found Lee Nicholls in particular a tough nut to crack.
The Terriers keeper tipped efforts by Bacuna and Hernandez against the woodwork.
Sandwiched in between was an angled drive from Thomas which hit the outside of the upright.
Corberan praised the character of his players.
He said: “This run is down to many things – the mentality of the players, the desire to play game by game and the positive performances of some of the players.
“We have a strong mentality, it’s impossible to compete in the Championship if not.
“Just as one example,
BIRMINGHAM CITY: Etheridge 6; Graham 5, Colin 6 (Sunjic 25, 6), Pedersen 5; Bela 6; Gardner 4, Woods 6; Bacuna 7, James 5 (Chong 66, 6); Jutkiewicz 5, Hernández 7.
Subs not used: Richards, Trueman, Oakley, Campbell.
HUDDERSFIELD TOWN: Nicholls 8; Turton 7, Pearson 7, Colwill 8, Toffolo 8; Russell 7, Hogg 7, O’Brien 8; Thomas 8 (Koroma 90), Rhodes 7 (Ward 79), Holmes 7 (Sinani 77).
Subs not used: Ruffels, Blackman, Sarr, Eiting.
MAN OF THE MATCH: Sorba Thomas. A superb ‘out’ ball for his team-mates and never gave Blues defenders a moment’s peace.
REFEREE: David Webb 7.
Lee Nicholls has had many good performances and helped earn us a lot of points.”
Birmingham head coach Lee Bowyer groaned: “I thought we started brightly, but the goals were soft again.
“In the second half we had a go, but it wouldn’t go in for us and we hit the woodwork twice – the keeper made an unbelievable save, but I can’t fault the players.”