Everton 2 - 0 Birmingham City

Half-time: 0 - 0

Barmby may have recovered from the atrocious lunge by Tim Flowers, but was obviously still suffering, and unable to really get much of a spark back into the newly lifeless Everton. 

Everton carried over their dreadful New Year malaise into much of the first half, granting Birmingham three good chances. But after about 20 mins, things seemed to improve when Hutchison headed just wide, then Jeffers hit the post after 25 mins. But in a poor first half, Everton were unable to score against a lively and determined Birmingham side.

Everton started the second half much better, with numerous shots going close, a clearance off the line, and Campbell getting his obligatory offside goal. Sustained Everton pressure finally paid off as Barmby was hauled down and Unsworth converted from the spot.  The scenario was repeated in the 93rd minute, when Campbell's shirt was pulled as he turned to shoot, and Everton finally ran out winners.

With Dunne now forgiven and Barmby shaking off the effects of Flowers' horror challenge, it was back to Walter's preferred starting eleven. Gerrard quite rightly kept his place and Dunne returned to a comfortably familiar back four alongside Unsworth, Weir and Gough. It was our usual midfield quartet of Barmby, Hutchison, Collins and Pembridge and Campbell and Jeffers were up front. Today's bench warmers were Simonsen, Ball, Watson, Gemmill and Moore.

First Half

The game started with us carrying on from where we left off against Leicester. Passes were going astray, we struggled to get the game played on the deck and too many players were displaying a poor touch on the ball. As a spectacle it was probably even worse than it had been against Leicester.

Birmingham looked like a typical First Division side – big and strong, well organised and hard working – but lacking quality and a cutting edge near goal. Much of the first half descended into a horrible midfield mess. We seemed incapable of stringing two worthwhile passes together; whilst Birmingham were allowed to pass around us with almost embarrassing ease, they never looked likely to unsettle us too much.

Having said that, they did manage to have three very good first half chances. The chances came about more from our inadequacies than their own endeavours, but come they did and really they should have done better with them. As it was, I'm not even sure they managed to hit the target but the warning signs were there for us.

As for Everton's scoring chances, I'm struggling to remember many. The couple that I can clearly remember are (1) Franny Jeffers hitting the inside of the post with a snap shot after he had cleverly made space for himself outside the box, and (2) Kevin Campbell being denied by some very sharp goalkeeping after he had been played into the box. After such a dire first-half offering, Everton left the pitch to muted boos. A big improvement was needed in the second half.

Second Half

Fortunately, the second half did indeed bring about an improvement. Without ever being especially good, we did up the pace and we did, on a few occasions, manage to string some passes together and get behind the Birmingham defence. For about 10 or 15 minutes we had Birmingham under some pressure; a string of corners, some good approach play from the likes of Barmby and Jeffers, and Birmingham were rocking... It was during this spell of the game that we really should have put it beyond them, but we lacked the killer punch, over-elaboration, indecisive finishing and some desperate defending saw Birmingham ride out the storm.

After our good spell, we became a little withdrawn and Birmingham came back into the game. They never looked even remotely like scoring; our defensive uncertainties of the first half seemed well behind us, but we lost the initiative and I began to think that we were never going to score.

It seems that these days we are struggling to score without a little outside help. This proved to be the case again today. Nick Barmby was the instigator with yet more clever work down the right, running at pace into the box his heels were clipped and David Elleray gave the penalty. The defender adjudged to have conceded the penalty was incensed clearly thinking he hadn't touched Barmby, Barmby quite clearly told him that he had indeed touched him. Personally, despite a good vantage point, I couldn't really tell, Barmby was moving in at speed and so it wouldn't have taken much contact to bring him down, but it was impossible to tell from a first viewing. Whatever, we weren't going to look a gift horse in the mouth and Unsworth converted with his customary poise.

Against limited opposition that was likely to be enough. We had to change things around a little with Franny going off to be replaced by Gemmill (Gemmill went into centre midfield with Don playing a little further up field but not as an out and out striker), and then Dunne had to be taken off after picking up some sort of leg injury, Watson took his place with Weir moving to right back. We coped pretty well with the changes and never really looked like conceding a goal.

However, there was always the danger that a goal could come from a set-piece and Birmingham looked dangerous from corners all match long. We really needed another goal to calm everyone's nerves. The goal finally arrived and once again we needed outside help. Good work down the right opened up Birmingham and presented Campbell with a chance directly in front of goal, he would surely have scored except that his shirt was pulled from behind as he lined up his shot. A clear penalty and no complaints this time. Unsworth stepped up again and scored into the same corner of the net. He really does look like an assured penalty taker.

That was practically the last kick of the match and it was mission accomplished. We had never been good, in fact we had been downright awful at times, but we had safely negotiated potentially difficult opponents and in the final analysis we had done enough and shown just about enough quality to have deserved the win.

Players

• Gerrard 6 Not too much to do but he does worry me at times. Twice he was slow to come off his line to deal with balls coming into the box, it didn't cost us this time but it is becoming something of a habit.
• Dunne 7 Continuing his good run of form.
• Unsworth 7 Two smartly taken penalties and a typical Unsworth performance of good honest endeavour and good uncomplicated defending.
• Weir 7 After his mini-wobble instigated by the Man Utd mauling is back to his accomplished best.
• Gough 7 Yet another sound defensive performance.
• Barmby 7 A lively, energetic performance. Involved in all our best football.
• Hutchison 6 Not at his best and we did seem to lose the midfield battle somewhat.
• Collins 6 Anonymous in the first half but showed himself more in the second. Not one of his better days.
• Pembridge 5 Thought he was pretty poor today. Gave the ball away too cheaply too often.
• Jeffers 7 Big, big improvement on the Leicester game (I think we can put that down to the Millennium Eve Incident). Looked lively, nearly scored.
• Campbell 6 I still don't think he's playing anything like his best but at least he worked hard and ran for us today.
• Gemmill - came on fairly late and to be honest I barely noticed him.
• Watson - ditto Gemmill.

Team 6 Poor. Like against Leicester, too often we were second to the ball, and our passing game, once again, was pretty wretched.

Man of the match - Nick Barmby for being the one man who could raise our game above the very ordinary.

So, in the early few minutes we seemed to set out our stall to attack, and looked like the Premiership side. Now, when I say that don't make any mistake because it lasted until about the thrd minute, and that was it, honeymoon over, and the usual brand of blue crap crept into play. We were second to just about everything for huge patches of the game. What an appauling display!

The line-up looked good, Gerrard in goal, back four of Rhino, Gough, Weir, and Dunne; Midfield of Hutch and Collins in the middle, with Barmby out on the right, and then Campbell and Jeffers up front. Pembridge was on the pitch, too, but as the colour-blind idiot can't pass to a blue shirt, EVER, I refuse to name him as a member of our line-up. Thankfully, Waggy was kept on the bench, and I really think it's time this one-time legend hung up his boots and stopped embarrassing himself. Sorry, but he's out of his depth in the Prem, and it's clear for all to see after the fiascos against Liecester and Coventry to name but two.

Back to the match itself, though, and yes, it was horrible. Passes were poorly given away, and if Birmingham were anything more than an average side, they would have been three-nil up after the early exchanges. Honestly, Birminghan are nowhere near good enough to be considered relegation fodder in the Prem, and they showed it off by missing two gilt-edged opportunities to score (Marcelino and O'Connor, maybe). They got one on target, but Gerrard made a solid block.

Basically, they were about as bad as us, but we only had one serious goal contender, and that was from a lazy-looking Jeffers, who was going to run with it, had acres of space and thought, "Nah, I can't be arsed with that, I think I'll just twat it from here." So, he shot incredibly well, and was unlucky not to score the opener. What a shot! I still think he should be sold, though. No commitment, and no desire to play for the Royal Blue. Sod him. We want to keep the ones like Dunne, Ball and Unsworth, though, and the two who played today were head and shoulders above Gough and Weir as our best defenders. Seriously.

By the end of the half, I must say that I wasn't all that impressed with either of the three midfielders, although, Barmby and Collins do look like they could hold their own in a good midfield. Hutch on the other hand actually set up one of their good chances with a wayward pass. Another sloppy piece of play. At least only about half of our play was the old route one stuff, and with the defence and Collins & Barmby, and Campbell all playing some good football.

0-0 at the break, and the Brummies were unlucky not to be well out in front.

Into the second, and it was a marginal improvement, and we got those vital penalties. We got two instead of three on the day, but while Barmby did look like the ball had gone a little too far in front of him when he was tripped, I think Super Kev was definitely about to score when he was hauled down.

Besides those situations, Campbell chickened out of a clear run on goal and instead waited for support in an instant that came after the 1st goal. Hutch showed up and collected the pass from him, only to ignore an impressive overlap from Barmby, and then he wanted the ball on his right foot, and that took too much time, and the chance was gone.

Also, Collins should have created a chance for Kev, but he wanted too much time to hit the pass, so that when he eventually released our number nine, it was all a little too late. Not that much of a sin, unless you're on £26,000 per week.

All in all, they couldn't beat or defence when they had the ball, on the other hand we did look the better side in the second half, and the only way their defence could contain us was by conceding 2 (but should have been 3) penalties. So we were good value, even at two-nil.

Man of the match – Barmby/Unsworth/Dunne. Three way tie. Also, I have to say that Wally is seriously testing my patirence by playing Pembridge over and over again. This man is costing us games, and as his manager, Wally is throwing them away. I want Ball on the left of the midfield. Sell Jeffers, but only if we get good money, otherwise, give him the Ball treatment, i.e. stick him on the bench. Moore doesn't look the part to me from what I've seen, so I think we need more money for forwards. But what else is new?!

That had as much to do with the brilliance of Birmingham City's goalkeeper Ian Bennett as anything else. Time and again in the second half, Bennett defied Everton and kept his side in with a chance of causing a shock. With 14 minutes to go, Unsworth finally beat him from the spot but the award of that first penalty, after an Eddie Newton challenge on Nicky Barmby, was hotly disputed.

"I felt at the time that Barmby took a dive," said Birmingham manager Trevor Francis "I've since seen the video since, watched the incident a couple of times and I can see there was no contact at all. My players are bitterly upset. Up to that, I thought we were heading towards a replay."

In truth, after a first half-hour during which their hard-working midfield axis of Martin O'Connor and Graham Hyde held sway, the visitors' chance of an upset diminished as the game wore on. After only seven minutes, O'Connor dispossessed Don Hutchison and tested Paul Gerrard from distance. Two minutes later, the overlapping Gary Rowett shot narrowly wide from a good position and soon after that, Bryan Hughes sent the ball the wrong side of the post.

Throughout this bright opening by an injury-hit Birmingham side, Everton appeared lacklustre. With Hutchison and John Collins giving best in midfield to their lesser-ranked opponents, they struggled to find any fluency and the impatient home support were soon on their case. With only a marvellous Francis Jeffers 25-yard strike that came back off the post to cheer in the first half, the home support's waning spirits were lifted by an exuberant start to the second.

In the 51st minute, Michael Johnson did well to prevent Hutchison scoring at the end of a sweeping move involving Mark Pembridge and Jeffers that announced Everton's renewed determination.

Seconds later, the outstretched boot of Simon Charlton raked a Campbell toe-poke off the line before the same player had a header disallowed for offside.

As the siege continued, the ever-vigilant Bennett turned away a half-volley from Barmby. Then, Collins created yet another opening for Campbell but having sprung the offside trap he could not keep his shot on target. When he did manage to do so from a Jeffers pull-back just after the hour, Bennett was once more equal to his best effort and until referee David Elleray adjudged Newton to have fouled Barmby in the 76th minute, a clean sheet appeared within the keeper's grasp.

Once the lead was attained, Smith replaced the young Irish defender Richard Dunne with the veteran Dave Watson, and withdrew Jeffers in favour of the midfield grit of Scott Gemmill. The reshuffle hardly disrupted their rhythm, and it took two more superb Bennett saves to frustrate Barmby and Campbell in the closing stages.

Right at the end, Campbell was fouled by David Holdsworth, and Unsworth converted his second penalty. Not even man of the match Bennett could do anything about that.

Everton made one change from the side that had been unconvincing against Leicester in their last outing, bringing back Richard Dunne after his New Year misadventures, in place of Dave Watson. Nicky Barmby was passed fit to play despite his crunching knee-to-knee collision with Tim Flowers on Monday.

At least Walter Smith was able to field something recognisable as a first team, which was more than Trevor Francis could manage, with his attacking options particularly depleted, despite the presence of two of his recovering invalids, Dele Adebola and Stan Lazaridis, on the bench.

Birmingham still managed the first meaningful strike on goal, their captain, Martin O'Connor, dispossessing Don Hutchison when his opposite number wanted too long on the ball and firing in a shot that made Paul Gerrard fling himself to his left. As the errors continued, Birmingham wasted two more chances.

Everton were not merely dreadful, they resembled the Everton of the first half of last season and there can be few worse condemnations than that.

It was 25 minutes before they had their first attempt on goal of any description--a routine header from Richard Gough that went tamely wide.

Far more threatening was the way Francis Jeffers smashed his shot against the inside of the post after being fed by Kevin Campbell. Not before time, Everton were coming to life and, before half-time, the Birmingham goalkeeper, Ian Bennett, had to save at Campbell's feet.

Francis revamped his side at half-time by bringing on Adebola to add some stature up front. It was the sign of a team that felt the game was there for the winning, although they came close to going behind when Simon Charlton cleared off the line from Campbell. The persistent Campbell finally got the ball in the net with a diving header after Jeffers had touched on Hutchison's free-kick, but the flag was up for off-side.

Everton had a more insistent look about them now, with Barmby having a shot blocked and Campbell shooting past the post from John Collins' pass. Campbell went desperately close again when Bennett thwarted him with his feet.

A replay at St Andrew's was looking likely when Campbell, leading the line with industry and intelligence despite the lack of the goal he deserved, put the ball in from the right. Barmby's darting run was too quick for the Birmingham substitute, Eddie Newton, and his lunge gave Unsworth his first opportunity from the spot.

After Barmby had a goal-bound shot saved, Campbell had his feet taken from under him in injury time and Unsworth obliged once more.

Indeed, Francis was eager to explain that, given his tutelage as a player under the demure management of Brian Clough at Nottingham Forest two decades ago, he was loath to criticise referees or fellow professionals. The incident that precipitated Birmingham City's departure from the FA Cup, however, was too much to bear.

Until Nick Barmby, the Everton midfield player, won a penalty 13 minutes from the end of this FA Cup fourth-round tie at Goodison Park, Birmingham, the Nationwide League first division side, were clinging to the prospect of a replay at St Andrew's.

Barmby, running at the heart of the visitors' defence, lost control of the ball as Eddie Newton prepared to challenge him in the penalty area. Newton pulled out of the tackle at the last moment, but Barmby went down. David Unsworth converted the spot kick and, with almost the last kick of the game, he repeated the feat to secure Everton's passage to the fifth round.

The second penalty, Francis acknowledged, was as justified as it was "irrelevant". It was the actions of Barmby in winning the first, while ensuring that Everton remain in the Cup, that curtailed Birmingham's own interests in the competition. Francis even felt moved to have words with Barmby after the match.

"I told him what I thought, but he disagreed," Francis said. "I was taught by Brian Clough not to show dissent, but I cannot hold back. I thought Barmby took a dive at the time, and the television replays show that no contact was made by our player."

Barmby is not a diver by reputation but, to judge from Francis's views, the climate in English football may have coloured his thinking.

"The actions we only used to see on the Continent have crept into our game over the last few years," Francis said. "It is difficult to know how to reverse the trend, but there should be an intervention by Gordon Taylor [chairman of the Professional Footballers' Association]. Referees have a hard enough job as it is, and there have been other incidents recently which have highlighted the problem."

While Barmby continues to plead his innocence, Everton will argue that the affair has overshadowed the fact that their dominance was deserving of reward. After a bright opening, Birmingham were reliant upon Ian Bennett, their goalkeeper, in retaining them a prolonged interest. So, in contrast to the other growing trend in English football, Francis cannot expect this controversy to yield a replay.

Birmingham had begun much the brighter and while Everton had command of virtually the entire second half it was harsh on Trevor Francis's team to go out in the manner they did. Nick Barmby, running on to a pass from Kevin Campbell, was baulked by Eddie Newton and that persuaded David Elleray to award the penalty which David Unsworth rolled home.

Unsworth had escaped the grim fallout from New Year celebrations which for various reasons had seen Francis Jeffers, Richard Dunne and Michael Ball earn the displeasure of manager Walter Smith. The defender had saved the Merseysiders from defeat at the hands of Leicester on Monday and after a foul on Campbell there was another successful spot kick for him yesterday in injury time.

The Everton goal had come under real threat from two attempts early in the first half and although Jeffers struck the base of a post it was against the run of play.

Sensing Everton's unease, Birmingham attacked with purpose and found scope out wide. Gary Rowett, a former Evertonian, embarked on a long surge from right-back and when released by a slick Marcelo-Bryan Hughes combination his low shot escaped the far corner by the narrowest of margins.

Two minutes later a corner fell to Graham Hyde, whose angled chip gave Hughes the chance to add to his recent tally as the offside flag stayed down but again the aim was just fractionally awry.

The Birmingham onslaught had begun with a powerful Martin O'Connor effort that had stung the goalkeeper's palms. That opportunity had arrived as O'Connor won possession from Don Hutchison and for some time the home team remained off the pace. Then Jeffers, sensing Everton's need for something spectacular just to get them going, unleashed a crashing drive which came back from the woodwork with Ian Bennett well beaten.

It was a reminder of the Premiership's greater firepower which, ultimately, was to prove significant.

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