At St. Andrews

1st April 2001

Att: 24,003

Birmingham City will, barring a catastrophic last month of the season, qualify for the First Division play-offs.

Wolverhampton Wanderers won't. So why did Wolves' supporters leave St Andrew's in buoyant mood while their Blues counterparts sloped away full of anxiety?

It's all down to momentum, of course. Wolves, after completing their second thoroughly deserved derby win in successive games, have it.

Blues, five matches without a win, have lost it big-time and desperately need to recover it before the play-offs arrive.

If they make the play-offs, that is. Surely they will - despite their startling slump they remain strongly placed - but after watching his side beaten by a first-minute goal from George Ndah, manager Trevor Francis was looking over his shoulder instead of peering above into the wake of rapidly accelerating Blackburn Rovers.

"Automatic promotion has gone out of the door now," Francis said. "Our target is what it was when the season started; to get in the play-offs.

"We are in quite a good position but still need one or two points."

Francis's exasperation at a third successive home defeat was clear. Without midfield engine-room stokers Martin O'Connor and Danny Sonner (injured) and Curtis Woodhouse (suspended) Blues were out-fought and out-thought in that area.

Wolves were quicker and stronger from the first whistle. After just 50 seconds, Carl Robinson's pass sent Ndah beyond the defence and the big man took the ball on to add a measured finish. More than an hour and a half was to elapse before Blues summoned up a clear scoring chance in reply.

Wolves won about 70 per cent of the 50/50 balls. With Ludovic Pollet decisive and composed and at St Andrew's Sean Connelly making the most impressive of debuts on the right, they denied a sniff of goal to all four strikers used at various times by Birmingham. None of the quartet got round to testing Michael Oakes.

True, Blues were further hindered by injuries. A damaged thigh kept Martin Grainger out of the starting XI and Peter Atherton and Jon McCarthy both limped off in the first half with hamstring strains. However long the list of absentees, though, it could not excuse the welter of misplaced passes which Blues produced, especially in the first half.

"The players tried their best but it wasn't good enough," acknowledged Francis. "When you lose a goal in the first minute the crowd gets anxious and that anxiety does transmit itself through to the players.

"A number of them found it difficult to express themselves and play the way they like to play.

"These are difficult times for us. But the spirit is still good and if we can get some players back we will be a different team again."

Wolves manager Dave Jones, meanwhile, wore the satisfied smile of a man who has things moving in the right direction.

"In the first half we played some really good football," he said. "In the second it was a battle but we defended well.

"To come to a place like Birmingham and restrict them to two chances, both right at the end, is a tremendous effort. The players did well - and there is a lot better to come."

To score a goal before quite a few spectators' bums had hit seats was a big help. Ndah's strike bolstered Wolves' confidence and frayed Blues' nerves.

On the few occasions a dull first half approached excitement it was closer to Blues' goal than Wolves'. Pollet produced the best effort, his header in first-half injury time turned aside by Bennett.

By then, Francis had already been forced, by the loss of Atherton and McCarthy, to switch to 4-3-3. Three strikers, however, could not achieve any more than two, that is, muster a shot on target. Neither could a fourth, Marcelo, when he replaced Geoff Horsfield.

Quite a few of those seats had been vacated again by those bums when Birmingham finally created a decent scoring chance. In the 93rd minute, Stan Lazaridis's cross found David Holdsworth arriving at pace but the defender crunched his header straight at Oakes.

The goalkeeper then saved Lazaridis's 20-yarder but it was much too little far too late from Blues who have got to get down to some serious scratching of heads and healing of hamstrings if that momentum is to be restored.