Birmingham City suffer Wembley heartbreak as Peterborough clinch Vertu Trophy

National World - LocalTV

Birmingham World reporter Charlie Haffenden's reacts to Birmingham City 0-2 Peterborough United in the Vertu Trophy final at Wembley Stadium/

Transcript

00:00Birmingham City's trip to Wembley has ended in disappointment.

00:05Peterborough United running out 2-0 victors here at Wembley Stadium in the Virtue Trophy Final.

00:10Chris Davies' men, they won the league, they're promoted this week.

00:13It was meant to be a historic hat-trick, completing the week with a trophy win here under the famous arch.

00:19However, it was not to be.

00:21Harley Vale, the fantastic free kick for Peterborough in the 15th minute,

00:24and then Hector Cipriano just before the break putting a second dagger in Blues Hearts.

00:29A fantastic finish just inside the area, into the roof of the net.

00:33The first goal, the free kick, was absolutely sublime.

00:36A curler from about 25 yards, a difficult angle, goes for the keeper's side, in off the crossbar,

00:42giving Ryan Olsopp a full stretch, absolutely no chance.

00:45If anything, I think Birmingham, they had all of the ball in the game,

00:49and they were probably the better team in terms of possession.

00:51However, the chances, they weren't able to create too many whatsoever.

00:55It was a bit too little too late towards the end.

00:57Jay Stansfield moving out to the left flank with Alfie May.

00:59Coming on for the second half made a difference.

01:02Lukas Djukovic coming on for a late cameo,

01:04seeing a volley save the point-blank range by former Aston Villa man Jed Steer

01:09in between the sticks for Peterborough.

01:10But, as I say, the chances, they didn't really flow until the end of the game.

01:14Blue Nose is nearly 50,000 of them here at Wembley.

01:19That's one thing to be proud of today, is just the immense support from the Blues fans.

01:22But they were very disappointed, and they'll go home disappointed.

01:25This was meant to be a day of celebration and defiance, but Chris Davies' men,

01:31they were just toothless for much of the game.

01:33It was just a lack of desire, a lack of urgency to get forward.

01:37Yes, they had the ball.

01:38Yes, they were crunching in for challenges,

01:40but they didn't have the pace and intensity and the tempo to really cause any problems for Peterborough.

01:45Darren Ferguson now won it three times as a manager and one time as a player.

01:50Of course, Peterborough are the reigning champions heading into today,

01:53the first team in history to ever retain their title.

01:56They used the experience from last year well.

01:57They sit in, they compacted in a low block.

02:00But they also went for it at times.

02:02Whenever there was an opportunity to go and press and push on forwards,

02:05they had the pace on the wings and through the centre to cause Birmingham problems.

02:09Some big tackles in the end from Ethan Laird, Christoph Plara and Ben Davies to keep Blues in the game.

02:15Ryan Allstop as well with a decent double save.

02:18One was quite impressive to deny Poku.

02:20But just not good enough, as I say, on the attack for Blues.

02:24We have seen it at times this season.

02:25As much as they've been dominant in the league and they're potentially going to go and get a record points total in league on history,

02:31potentially in EFL history as well, there have been games where it hasn't quite been their day.

02:37Those days haven't come around too often.

02:39Birmingham typically do end up on top of things.

02:41They did against Peterborough earlier in the season.

02:43They went 2-0 down at St. Andrews and they came back to win the game.

02:46However, this time they just didn't have that same kind of mouse on the ball,

02:50didn't have the ability to get in behind and cause problems often enough.

02:54And Peterborough, fair place for them.

02:56Barry Fry once again has the last laugh.

02:59The last time was in 1995 as manager of Birmingham City.

03:03Today, he's the chairman of Peterborough and he's delighted to go home with the title once again.

03:08Birmingham, very disappointed.

03:10Understandably so.

03:11But still an incredible week.

03:13Securing promotion to the championship for the first time of asking.

03:16A league won title with six games to go.

03:18And now six matches to try and see out the season on a high.

03:21What a season it's been.

03:23Just a shame they couldn't play more silverware here at Wembley.

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