Stoke City 0 Birmingham City 1: Bruce welcomes makeshift Blues' battling progress
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Your support makes all the difference.A scrappy goal by Mikael Forssell at the start of the second half was enough to secure Birmingham City's first appearance in the quarter-finals of the FA Cup since 1984, which may or may not be ominous for their prospects of survival in the Premiership. It just happens they were relegated that season.
Right now Birmingham will prefer not to subscribe to the theory that history repeats itself, or at least not to dwell on the possibility. In their predicament, any kind of win in any competition is something to be celebrated. Perhaps this result instead might be the catalyst for a revival.
They did not do much to advertise themselves as a side from a division above Stoke but did enough. Their manager, Steve Bruce, is still being forced to scratch around for players, with a full team's worth currently in the treatment room.
Cynics might suggest they were lucky to face an opponent with problems seemingly deeper than their own after rumblings that Stoke's warring management team might all be sacked. However, manager Johan Boskamp's public fall-out with his assistant, Jan de Koning, and director of football, John Rudge, appears not to have sown disharmony among the team, who could count themselves a touch unlucky. But for two brilliant saves by Maik Taylor in Birmingham's goal, Stoke might well have sprung an upset, even without the glaring miss committed by Sammy Bangoura 12 minutes into the second half.
Taylor distinguished himself first by keeping out a shot from Stoke defender Carl Hoefkens that was struck so well it deserved to hit the net. There were to be more scares but Forssell's goal barely a minute into the second half gave the Premiership side a critical edge. It was a scruffy piece of work, bundled in at the far post after Martin Latka had flicked on a Jermaine Pennant corner.
"Considering how many I had out I was delighted," Bruce said, making a point of praising his 21-year-old son Alex's contribution.
"It has been hard for him with all the things that have been said but he was up against a couple of big battering rams today and had his best game. His mother will be proud of him."
Goal: Forssell (46) 0-1.
Stoke City (4-4-2): Simonsen; Hoefkens, Duberry, Hill, Broomes (Rooney, 86); Chadwick, Brammer, Junior, Sweeney (Sigurdsson, 69); Bangoura, Sidibe. Substitutes not used: Buxton, de Goey (gk), Henry.
Birmingham City (4-4-2): Taylor; Melchiot, Latka, Bruce, Gray; Johnson, Clemence, Butt, Pennant (Clapham, 88); Forssell (Jarosik, 75), Heskey. Substitutes not used: Vaesen (gk), Oji, Painter.
Referee: M Dean (Merseyside).
Booked: Stoke City Junior, Hoefkens, Brammer. Birmingham City Latka, Clemence.
Man of the match: Taylor.
Attendance: 18,768.
* Police came under sustained attack from hundreds of hooligans as Stoke and Birmingham fans attempted to confront each other following the match. Staffordshire Police said several arrests had been made during the disorder.
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