At St. Andrews

17th October 2000

Att: 15,579

The Celtic striker has said he wants to make the move south to St Andrews and let his action speak louder than those words with two goals in the space of seven minutes.

He also won the penalty, as harsh as it was, that allowed Martin Grainger to give the Blues some valuable breathing space and would have had a hat-trick had he not been hauled down by keeper Carlo Nash, who was shown the red card in the last minute.

The dismissal of the County 'keeper was a sour end to a night that had been anything but sweet for a Stockport side who have now gone 14 games without a win and have not plundered the spoils from St Andrews since battle raged at The Somme.

Full-back Sean Connolly limped off after just 10 minutes, and the form book soon ran true when Birmingham, who had started superbly, finally took the lead through leading scorer Geoff Horsfield’s low angled drive.

But the Blues then lost their momentum and in truth it was not until a typical Francis reshuffle – he replaced Horsfield and the recalled Dele Adebola with Marcelo and Burchill – that they looked certain of the three points.

Eight minutes after coming on, Burchill burst through but saw Nash hurtle out and seemingly take the ball off his toes only for referee Jordan to point to the spot – without the need of the linesman’s flag.

Nash was booked for the offence, and Grainger kept his cool as Stockport raged at the ref and slotted the kick low to the left for an overdue 2-0 lead.

Incensed by the decision, Andy Kilner’s men lost the defensive discipline that had served them so well and were then sunk by Burchill’s swift salvo.

First he latched onto a pass from Martin O’Connor, this time skipped round Nash’s dive and slotted in left-footed and then with just three minutes left, killed a pull-back from Bryan Hughes before ramming the fourth high into the net.

Just 30 seconds later he looked certain to complete a quickfire hat-trick but was hauled down by Nash, who rightly saw red against the Blues.

It could have been even worse for Stockport had the upright not saved them from a fifth when Stan Lazaridis was given plenty of time and space to pick his spot.