SHAY SHOWS HE IS MONEY WELL SPENT
Birmingham 0 Manchester City 0
'WHAT a waste of money' chanted the Birmingham fans at St Andrew's.
The taunt was aimed at Joleon Lescott, Carlos Tevez and, most frequently, Gareth Barry during this goalless stalemate. One man who will never have to suffer such an insult is Manchester City keeper Shay Given.
Mark Hughes hailed his signing of the Irish number one as a bargain before the game and saw the former Newcastle shot-stopper earn a point with a superb penalty save to deny James McFadden 11 minutes into the second half.
With Birmingham applying real pressure to the visitors and playing at a high tempo early on, Given had already earned his pay with two crucial saves during the opening exchanges.
This point, secured from a fourth consecutive draw for Hughes's big-spenders and enough to take them into the top four, was largely earned by somebody who, on this form, can claim to be one of the very best in the division.
Alex McLeish's side, fielding Christian Benitez and Cameron Jerome together in attack, applied the sort of blueprint required to upset more expensive oppponents. Harrying and hassling, there was a classic example of their game-plan when Barry Ferguson, who was stupidly sent off in the dying seconds, caught Barry cold to set up a great chance but dragged his shot wide.
Given was called into action after nine minutes when Mike Dean played a fine advantage after Jerome was flattened, and Benitez collected Sebastian Larsson's pass from the right to bear down on goal. The Ecuadorian, who plays with 'Chucho' on his back, saw his deflected shot arrow towards the bottom corner before Given made a sensational intervention to tip it onto a post.
When the energetic Benitez profited from more great harrying by Larsson and Jerome, he was clean through but again saw Given come out on top as he saved excellently with his legs.
While Barry's every touch was jeered because of his Aston Villa past, Tevez dropped deep but still managed to supply a few killer passes, one of which set up Craig Bellamy, but Roger Johnson made a great saving tackle.
Maik Taylor, like his opposite number an Irish international keeper, spilled a Shaun Wright-Phillips swerver but was bailed out by Stephen Carr while Given continued to impress at the other end as he flipped over McFadden's ambitious attempt from long range.
The visitors looked patched up to the naked eye with Tevez, Wayne Bridge and the disappointing Roque Santa Cruz all wearing knee braces or bandages of some sort and they rarely threatened despite Santa Cruz being crowded out on one occasion from a Wright-Phillips cross, following a splendid pass down the line by Tevez.
Birmingham managed to regain some of their earlier tempo when Lee Bowyer forced another stop out of Given and the keeper clutched the rebound just in time as the first half finished goalless.
Blow
After Tevez blazed over, again failing to get his direction right, the penalty came on 56 minutes when City skipper Nigel De Jong handled as the ball bounced against him from Larsson's challenge. McFadden stepped up but Given guessed right and dived to his left to push out the spot-kick.
It was a real blow to the hosts and McFadden was replaced soon after being booked but they still went close to breaking the deadlock as Jerome's excellent headed attempt was just off target.
Taylor swatted away a venomous drive by Tevez and there was concern when Johnson was laid out by a Bridge shot. Referee Dean sensibly stopped play, leading the visitors to think he may have awarded a penalty as Tevez was bundled over by Larsson inside the box, but it was merely to ensure the Blues defender received urgent treatment.
Thankfully, the ex-Cardiff stopper recovered and, in the six minutes of injury time, subsitutes Kevin Phillips and Martin Petrov had half-chances they were unable to convert.
The final shot in anger came from Tevez but was again wild and lacking composure.
The match finished on an unnecessarily sour note for Blues when Ferguson foolishly put his hand up to block a Pablo Zabaleta throw-in. It gave Dean no option but to brandish the ninth red card in the Premier League this weekend after the Scot was booked in the first half.
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