Birmingham City impress but lose 3-2 to Leicester City

Birmingham World reporter Charlie Haffenden's post-match reaction to Birmingham City 2-3 Leicester City in the Sky Bet Championship.

Transcript

00:00 Birmingham City 2, Leicester City 3 here at St. Andrews Stadium. That is now our

00:05 seventh defeat in Wayne Rooney's first 11 games. It was actually a really good

00:09 effort from Birmingham tonight. 3-2, probably a fair scoreline. Leicester

00:13 maybe could have run away with it 4-2, 5-2 if they'd converted their chances.

00:17 But it wasn't quite about that, it was more about the effort levels and the desire from

00:21 Birmingham and the improvement as well in attack, creating so many chances

00:25 throughout. They'd probably go up three or four goals as well if luck was more on

00:29 their side. The scoring was actually opened by Leicester despite Birmingham

00:32 starting the game so so well and aggressively and with so much intent. A bit

00:37 of a freak goal as a Birmingham corner swept in. James Justin, a Leicester

00:41 defender, hits it against his own post. With so much power the ball ended up about

00:45 30 or 40 yards up the pitch. Ivan Sanjic was the only one back for

00:49 Birmingham. Leicester had two on one. Mavrdizi ended up being played through on goal

00:53 and he chipped it over John Ruddy to make it 1-0. Birmingham got back in the game

00:58 pretty quickly. Jordan James scoring a very good finish after some good

01:02 teamwork. Sanjic playing in James before he put it to the bottom left-hand

01:05 corner. But Dewsbury Hall scored just a few phases of play later once again on

01:10 the counter-attack. Juninho Bacuna was dispossessed on the edge of his own box

01:14 and Leicester so devastating on the counter all season and especially in

01:18 this game. They went up the other end. Dewsbury Hall who's been such an

01:21 impressive player for them scoring, going past and round John

01:25 Ruddy. Maybe a little bit too easily actually Ruddy. Made it a bit too easy

01:29 for Dewsbury Hall but 2-1 to them. It was then 3-1 as Mavrdzi got a second goal

01:34 of the game in the second half. Leicester came out the better team in the second

01:38 period, a bit more intense. But Birmingham kept fighting. Three changes made by

01:42 Wayne Rooney just beyond the 70th minute. In attack the likes of Stansfield going

01:46 off bringing in some fresh legs and it made a difference. Koji Miyoshi out on

01:50 the right-hand side dribbling very directly at James Justin. It fell to

01:54 Jordan James in the penalty area and he had the most desire to keep hold of the

01:58 ball and he kind of scoops it into the far-hand corner. It was deflected but it

02:02 went into the goal and it was all for his effort. He got the goal. It was very

02:05 well deserved and it made for an interesting end. 3-2 now to Leicester

02:08 and Birmingham did press on for an equaliser, a second equaliser. They

02:12 couldn't quite get it. If anything Leicester with their own counter-attack

02:16 is probably going to score the fourth or even the fifth but it ended 3-2. No points

02:20 for Birmingham once again. They're just six points above relegation zone but

02:24 there is an improvement and I think Birmingham fans will be pretty happy

02:26 with the intent shown. Surely that is better than just sitting back and

02:30 inevitably being undone eventually by Leicester because they're that good of a

02:33 team. So plenty to take from it positively. A little bit once again

02:39 exposed at the back which is a shame to see but Leicester are topside as I say

02:43 and you would expect them to go and win this game. The fact it's only a one goal

02:46 deficit isn't too bad at all.