Birmingham City 1-0 West Brom: Blues fans react to derby day win
Blues took all three points in the West Midlands derby thanks to Lyle Taylor’s second half penalty
Birmingham City beat West Bromwich Albion 1-0 in Sunday’s (3 April) West Midlands derby thanks to Lyle Taylor’s second half penalty.
West Brom’s slim hopes of a Championship play-off place are now all but over after the 1-0 defeat to Lee Bowyer’s side at St Andrew’s.
Taylor scored the penalty in a game that will not live long in the memory of anyone, especially those of the Albion contingent.
It was a game that, for the most part, lacked any real spark or quality but Taylor’s spot-kick in the 67th minute oozed class and gave Blues, on the whole, a deserved three points.
BirminghamWorld spoke to the home fans after the game, which you can see in the video above.
Bruce slams referee
After the game, Baggies boss Steve Bruce slammed the referee’s decision to not award his side a penalty.
Albion had what looked a clear penalty waved away after just four minutes when Blues defender Marc Roberts hand-balled a Darnell Furlong throw into the box.
The referee blew the whistle and with the stadium expecting a point to the spot, he gave a free-kick in favour of the home side.
Speaking after the game, Bruce says he was perplexed with the decision but refused to blame the defeat on one bad call.
“It’s a stonewall penalty,” said the manager.
“I think the referee blew his whistle and thought ‘s***, what have I done’ and then invented a free-kick to them where not even our players went for the ball. They both collided into each other if I recall it well enough so it was a poor decision.
“On the other one, Conor has got his hand in a position where it shouldn’t be so I’ve got no qualms about that one but we should have had a penalty after three or four minutes - a blatant one which the referee has missed.”
A message from the editor:
Thank you for reading. BirminghamWorld is Birmingham’s latest news website, championing everything that is great about our city - reporting on news, lifestyle and sport. We want to start a community among our readers, so please follow us on Facebook,Twitter and Instagram, and keep the conversation going.