Morrison - 18

Grainger - 57

    Huckerby - 31

Adebola - 60

    Goater - 42

At Maine Road

6th January 2001

Att: 19,380

Ghostly Blues almost pulled off one of the great FA Cup escapes at Maine Road.

Trevor Francis's troops were dead and buried at half-time as goals from Andy Morrison, Darren Huckerby and a Shaun Goater penalty fired the Premiership strugglers into dreamland.

But with the undertaker knocking on David Sullivan's door for his cheque, Blues were reincarnated.

First Martin Grainger breathed life into the St Andrew's men and then Dele Adebola lifted the coffin lid with his tenth goal of the season.

Blues, who had dumped Tottenham and Newcastle out of the Worthington Cup, sensed another top flightscalp was there for the taking.

But sadly, despite a late onslaught, and with City hanging on grimly for survival, it was to no avail.

"We had nothing to lose in the second half," said Francis. "I thought the half time score-line was ridiculous because City only had three attempts on goal.

"We were a lot more positive after the interval and had them seriously worried.

"It would have been a tremendous effort to get back on level terms but we're not too disappointed by the result."

Francis was content to look forward to the League Cup semi-final at Ipswich on Tuesday night.

"I'm relieved there were no red cards or injuries," he added.

"The game at Ipswich is the biggest one in my players' lives. And we can't wait for it."

They talk about the romance of the Cup but there was little evidence of it in a sterile opening. As sweet love goes this was more akin to an evening with Jack and Vera at the Rovers.

However the City machine was up and running in the 18th minute when centre-half Morrison headed Joe Royle's men ahead with an unstoppable header.

The giant defender was left unmarked for Danny Tiatto's inswinging corner and from eight yards out his bullet header flashed past Ian Bennett.

Francis had shuffled his pack by bringing Stan Lazaridis back for Bryan Hughes and replacing record signing Geoff Horsfield with Peter Ndlovu, who had scored four times during a month's loan at Huddersfield.

It meant Blues went into the game with two transfer-listed strikers leading the attack.

But any hope of revenging their 1956 FA Cup final defeat had seemingly gone up in smoke after 31 minutes when Huckerby left the Blues defence for dead.

An electrifying burst of pace down the right flank saw him glide serenely past the despairing Michael Johnson and Darren Purse without having to fend off a challenge before firing a lethal shot past Bennett.

The 700 Blues fans who had made the journey up the M6 must have wished they hadn't bothered.

Manchester City are no world beaters by any stretch of the imagination but Birmingham's dodgy defence made them look a million dollars.

Danny Sonner, who was his side's most incisive player, had a shot deflected for a corner in a rare attack and when chief tormentor Huckerby limped off four minutes before the interval, Birmingham's hopes lifted.

But within 30 seconds of Huckerby's departure, it was game set and match as Bennett lunged recklessly and needlessly at Richard Edghill inside the penalty area and Goater did the rest from the spot.

Francis decided he had the right personnel but not the best system at half-time -abandoning his 3-4-3 approach and reverting to a more accustomed flat back four.

Whether it was that or fragile City took the foot off the accelerator, Blues, with more of a cutting edge, were galvanised into action.

Ndlovu should have pulled a goal back in the 57th minute following a sliderule pass from Martin O'Connor but his shot was deflected for a corner.

However City didn't clear their lines and from the edge of the area Grainger curled a tantalising left-foot screamer into the opposite corner of the net to reduce the arrears.

Three minutes later City's brittle defence was exposed again when Adebola's header crept in from five yards after a Lazaridis left wing cross had created chaos in the home ranks.

Now we had a Cup tie on our hands as Birmingham piled forward in search of an equaliser.

The Premiership strugglers were wobbling like drunks and Adebola, a constant menace, almost capped a remarkable recovery when he shot across the face of goal in the 65th minute.

And then in the 83rd minute Marcelo unleashed a firecracker which Nicky Weaver tipped over the crossbar.

By now Blues had to throw caution to the wind but as hard as they tried to find the goal the equaliser just refused to come.