Birmingham City 0 – 1 Charlton Athletic

Written by: Shane Ireland (Proud to be a Bluenose)

Charlton Athletic took all three points back to South East London on Saturday with a 1-0 win at St Andrew’s.

Despite neither team particularly impressing, Charlton emerged deservedly victorious with Dale Stephens scoring the only goal.

Blues nearly found themselves behind inside two minutes as Johnnie Jackson headed towards goal, but Darren Randolph blocked the Charlton skipper’s effort.

After a quarter of an hour, Birmingham thought they were ahead. Dan Burn had the ball in the back of the net but his header was ruled out by referee Scott Mathieson as Lee Novak was penalised for his challenge on Ben Hamer.

The match continued in its slow and scrappy manner until Randolph again denied Jackson before Dale Stephens wasted his resulting chance.

At the other end, Lee Novak had the best chance of the half for Blues but Hamer saved his right-footed strike.

Just nine minutes after the restart, Charlton scored what would be the only goal of the match.

Cameron Stewart’s low drive was parried by Randolph, then the Blues ‘keeper again denied the away side’s effort but this double save meant nothing as Dale Stephens finally tapped home into the empty net.

The ever-impressive Tom Adeyemi came close to drawing Birmingham level but despite beating Hamer, his shot was blocked by an Addicks defender on the line.

Adeyemi’s near miss was the closest Blues came until stoppage time, when Peter Lovenkrands couldn’t repeat his super-sub heroics from Tuesday night, instead firing over from close range after Zigic had nodded the ball down.

Despite Lee Clark’s best attempts at changing the game with substitutions, it was an uninspiring performance throughout.

The defeat drops Blues into the relegation zone with only one win in their last six league games.

Birmingham City assistant manager Terry McDermott:

“No-one is happy with the position we are in at the moment in the bottom three. I would like to think that it will not last long because we have too many good players in the side.

“We are all devastated with the result especially after some good performances in our recent games.

We thought we had turned the corner but we simply didn’t perform on the day against Charlton. Our decision making was very poor.”

Charlton Athletic manager Chris Powell:

“I’m really pleased with the performance of the players. It was a crucial game but we warranted the three points.If you keep out the opposition you will get your chances.

My only gripe was that it was only 1-0 and I felt 2-0 or 3-0 would have been right. All the players are doing their job and they fully deserved their win.

“I’ve given the players confidence to go out and play. They have given each other confidence and a platform and some are playing really well.”

Starting lien up: Randolph; Caddis, Bartley, Burn, Robinson; Burke, Reilly, Adeyemi, Gray (Ferguson 62′); Novak (Lovenkrands 62′), Zigic

Man of the match: Tom Adeyemi