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Zigic Caps Off Blues Career With Senior Cup Win
Richard Beale’s Blues Development Squad side finished their season with a trophy after beating Nuneaton Town 2-1 in the Birmingham Senior Cup final at St Andrew’s tonight. First half goals from Wes Harding and Matt Green were enough to seal a win which ended closer than it might have been.
Alas, there was no final goal for the giant Serb but he can be happy with his final 90 minutes on the St Andrew’s pitch. At times he was more Zidane than Zigic, dropping deep and picking up the ball before laying it off or playing little through balls for players to run on to.
Blues could have gone behind early on after Hancox lost the ball on the edge of the box and Townsend had to be at his best to tip Jannai Gordon’s effort onto the post. However, the young Blues side grew into the game quickly and took the lead on 13 when Zigic nodded Reece Brown’s corner back across goal and Wes Harding was on hand to force the ball home from close range.
Blues doubled their lead fifteen minutes later when Green nodded home Dacres-Cogley’s fine right wing cross from short range for his first goal since his return from injury. Green could have had a hatful of goals with numerous chances falling to him but all too often he found the keeper rather than the onion bag,
Nuneaton came into the game much stronger second half and got a goal back on 58 when Gordon lifted a ball over the back four and Josh Rees lashed it home. Townsend got a despairing hand to the shot but didn’t have the strength to do anything more than parry it into the back of the net..
Despite strong vocal backing, Nuneaton couldn’t engineer an equaliser and Zigic nearly had the final say, laying the ball off to sub Perry Cotton before nodding the return cross across the face of the goal, only to see Crocombe in the visitors’ goal claw it away.
Reece Brown showed touches of class on the ball in the middle but once again his work off it let him down, with the young midfielder letting his man run into the box unmarked on more than one occasion.
All in all it was a decent result for the reserves and one that made Senior Development Coach Richard Beale – a winner of the trophy as a player – a happy manager. He told reporters after that he was pleased with the performance; not only of the more established players but also the young guns. As he quite rightly pointed out, the development squad’s job is to take young players and show them what they need to do to push into the first team and some of the u18s on show tonight have proven they could well kick on in the u21s next year.
OP MOTM – Josh Dacres-Cogley – strong in defence, good going forwards, a pleasing match for the young full back.
Team: Townsend, Dacres-Cogley, Hancox, Cooper, Harding, Bernard, Solomon-Otabor (Cotton 70), Brown, Zigic, Green, Guthmy (O’Neill HT).
Subs not used Kelly, Weaver, Macfarlane
Tags: Birmingham Senior Cup, Development Squad, Josh Dacres-Cogley, Matt Green, Nikola Zigic, Reece Brown, Wes Harding
11 Responses to “Zigic Caps Off Blues Career With Senior Cup Win”
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Fair do’s to Nuneaton who put on a good show. Other than Ziggy and Green we were a very young Team and it was interesting to see how they as a team of very talented boys performed against a less skillful team of men. Nice to see Ziggy play one last time and he seemed genuinely moved when saying his “goodbyes”. I agree with you about Josh D-C…..raw and makes mistakes, but definitely one to watch for the future.
We played really well first half and had spells in the second to put the game to bed. Fair play to the ‘pensioners of Buh-wah’ they took it to us in the second half and dazzled us with their high vis orange shirts.. three appeals for handball – impressive…
Relegated and runners up will hopefully be a familiar celebration as B6 embarrass themselves and entertain us all in this next few weeks… It is now below them to enter this competition that the boys did us proud by winning!
Liam Daish did a nice touch at the end and walked over to give a very young blues fan a medal and an autograph. Hopefully his next move is a successful one.
Up the Blues!!
So it’s goodbye to Zigic, Green, Thomas and Novak up front; Duffy, Reilly, Lee in midfield; Eardley, Packwood, Hancox, Bell, Doyle at the back.
Looks that way – will be sorry to see Green go – thought he might be the next DJC, Novak and Zig offer minimal and Wes tries hard, but thats it…
Think Reilly needs a few years in league one bossing midfields and Lee and Duffy look like league one players too
Eardley – what a let down he’s been…Packwood, Doyle, Bell (See previous league one comments) but I had such high hopes for Mitch – I’d still like to see him stay – he offers a different dimension going forward, and to me would be useful bringing on at left wing to tighten up when defending all our 1-0 wins next season :)
To those who went last night, did Matt Green show enough to think he might be staying past this season, or not?
I see Robbo has signed for another year.
I spoke to him afterwards, don’t think he will be.
Fair enough. Thanks for that!
I don’t think so Staffs. I feel really sorry for Green after his long lay-off but I think last night was his first goal since coming back. He could still come good….but I think it will be elsewhere. Interesting point made by Ian regarding Mitch. Last night I had written him off as a Blues player but perhaps he could still do a job for us after all.
I still think Hancox could carve out a decent career on the left of midfield. There’s no one at the club who crosses the ball better.
Sorry to see them all go but it’s got to be all change to the squad members who were not pushing the first team and quality brought in with what money rowett will be allowed and cunning loanes if possible…. It’s ” Gary rowett ” day app for Bolton and the man as even said what he’s wearing , blue jumper, blues tie, blue trousers and brown shoes so no excuses then , that’s exactly what I will be wearing tommorow so lets follow suit and enjoy the day !! Kro
Yes Dave, it’s a cruel game is football. There are a few who are obviously staying that I would have liked to see the back of, but hey ho. But, I wish all the best to those who leave StAns this summer. I hope they all get fixed up with new clubs.