Kirovski, not surprisingly, is on the subs bench. Birmingham is essentially starting three strikers, so Kirovski may come off the bench for the first one that needs to be spelled. Birmingham starts: Vaesen, Kenna, Cunningham, Upson, Clapham, Johnson, Savage, Clemence, John, Dugarry, Morrison Subs: I Bennett, P Devlin, S Lazaridis, J Kirovski, P Swierczewski
B-ham have played well, flooding the midfield and beating United to a lot of the loose balls. Unlucky not to be 1-1; Dugarry had a header cleared off the line by Veron, while Scholes blasted a shot from about 6-8 off the crossbar.
Some funny stuff. I haven't seen much EPL this year but is it normal for the announcer to say "Juan Sebast..." "Silvest" etc? It was funny seeing Beckham trying to dribble around Birmingham's left mid. 8) Some good action. Veron with a clearance off the line and I think it was Keane that rolled a pass across his own goal with the keeper just keeping Dugarry from having the time to get to it. Scholes has been United's best player hastling everybody, hitting the underside of the crossbar, and drawing fouls. Was also a funny situation when United had a free kick and the ref turned away and started walking towards the wall. Beckham starts moving the ball forward but when the ref turns around he moves the ball back and Beckham and the ref have a nice little exchange. Overall it is an odd match. ManU dominating the first 20 minutes and the last 10 or so, but Birmingham getting a bunch of opportunities all over the span of maybe 7 minutes and the rest of the game finding it very hard to even advance out of their half. And they may have 3 strikers but most of the time there is only Stern John up front.
2 minutes added time. Jovan got a few touches just after coming in, but hasn't seen much of the ball otherwise. BCFC have been playing a lot of boom ball just to get it out of the back. FT Birmingham 0 - 1 Man Utd.
Kirovski only involved in two plays, laid a ball off square and later in the game made a run down the right touchline but didn't recieve a pass.
FT 1-0 Man U. Kiro hardly got any touches...I don't understand Bruce's thinking...I know he has got plenty of attacking options now with John, Dugarry, Morrison, etc. (even though I haven't been very impressed with Morrison), yet their offensive movements look lethargic, confused even. Like they don't quite know what to do with the ball... Jovan comes on after Man U has taken a decidedly defensive stance...I know he has his limitations, but BC isn't exactly bangin' them in right now, and one of their more creative offensive players sits and waits on the bench...hell, even Lazaridis looked alright when he came on. I don't pretend to know anything about managerial decisions like that, but Birmingham was playing ok with Jovan in there at the end of '02...without him in they lose 4-2 to Bolton...who had just sold off Ricketts. Just my .02...and that goal by RVN was an absolute joke...the keeper should have had it...
I would hope it's obvious now why JK goes to the bench once dugarry arrives. Only three games in and already he's popped in, uhm, well he is a force up there. Just ask anyone he's kicked in the shins.
Dugarry was great today and if Kirovski is competing directly with him for playing time he's likely to have the best seats in the house. However Stern John and Clinton Morrison are both very inconsistent and at times look like they are YMCA players. Jovan should get some more looks up front although Dugarry is playing his natural position IMO.