Birmingham City 1-2 Huddersfield Town
It was another day of fan protests and another day of St Andrews woes for Birmingham City as they slumped to another home defeat in front of the increasingly disgruntled Birmingham faithful. Huddersfield looked to be in control of the match very early on and seized the initiative shortly after kick off. Jamie Ward’s excellent lofted ball into the penalty area found Oliver Norwood who finished superbly and confidently.
The terriers second was rather inevitable 16 minutes into the second half. The outstanding Adam Clayton found himself with plenty of space inside the Birmingham half and his piledriver flew into the Birmingham goal past Darren Randolph to make 2-0 to Huddersfield.
Substitute Olly Lee did mange to get a consolation goal for the hosts with an excellent finish deep into stoppage time but this did not dampen what was an excellent away win from Huddersfield or paper over the cracks of a poor Birmingham City performance.
Birmingham City
| Darren Randolph: Made a couple of decent stops but may have been a little disappointed to have not done better with Huddersfield’s second. | 6.5 |
| Paul Robinson: Blues’ skipper has never looked as comfortable at left back as he has done at centre half and this showed again today. | 6.0 |
| Will Packwood: Without question he has a bright future in the game but his inexperience did show on one or twoo occasions during the match. | 6.0 |
| Aaron Martin: Could form a good partnership with Packwood but communication and marking was not always up to standard. | 6.0 |
| Paul Caddis: No complaints regarding his effort but he was far from solid at times defensively and he lacked a real threat going forward. | 6.0 |
| Chris Burke: Had a very quiet game by his standards and was largely ineffective. | 6.0 |
| Tom Adyemi: Came close in the first half with a decent header but otherwise had a quiet game and he did not dominate the midfield as he would have liked. | 6.0 |
| Emyr Huws: The youngster on loan from Manchester City has impressed thus far in his Birmingham career but was a lot more wasteful in his passing on Saturday and was well dealt with by the Huddersfield midfield. | 6.0 |
| Reece Brown: Was substituted at half time and the 17 year old had by far his worst game in a Birmingham shirt after otherwise positive performances. | 5.5 |
| Lee Novak: His partnership with Macheda did not really click throughout the 90 minutes and his impact on the game was limited. | 6.0 |
| Federico Macheda: The Italian striker has been a breath of fresh air at Birmingham City but he struggled to get into this game and the amount of times he touched the ball were very few and far between. | 6.0 |
Substitutions
| Olly Lee: Smart finish for the Birmingham consolation but otherwise did little. | 6.5 |
| Nicola Zigic: Looked like he could cause some problems but he did not have enough of the ball in threatening areas. | 6.5 |
| Peter Lovenkrands: The change was supposed to have sparked some fresh life into Birmingham City and give them a real attacking threat to get back into the match however ths did not materialize. | 5.5 |
Huddersfield Town:
| Alex Smithies: Underworked for the vast majority of the game and will be disappointed to have not left Standrews with a clean sheet. | 6.5 |
| Tommy Smith: Played well alongside Anthony Gerrard and Joel Lynch in a back 3 formation which worked well for the terriers. | 7.0 |
| Anthony Gerrard: Looked competent and assured at centre half, making a couple of important tackles and interceptions. | 7.0 |
| Joel Lynch: Had a good and solid first half. Shame for him and Town fans that he did not feature. | 7.0 |
| Paul Dixon: Constant threat for Huddersfield out wide and did his fair share of defensive duties. | 7.0 |
| Oliver Norwood: Did well to find space in the penalty area and finish for the opening goal and gave the Birmingham side a real headache in his central midfield position. | 7.5 |
| Adam Clayton: Superb strike for Huddersfield’s goal and ran proceedings in the middle of the park. | 8.0 |
| Jonathan Hogg: A solid game if not a spectacular one from the midfielder. | 7.0 |
| Adam Hammil: Found it more difficult than his attacking colleagues to fashion opportunities and trouble the Blues defence. | 6.5 |
| Nahki Wells: Has had a good start to life at Huddersfield and looked lively and threatening up front all afternoon. | 7.0 |
| Danny Ward: Huddersfield fans have been left frustrated with his performances in recent games but he provided good support for Wells and showed signs of promise. | 7.0 |
Substitutions
| Peter Clarke: Welcome return from injury from the captain he replaced the injured Lynch at half time. Showed very few signs of any rustiness. | 7.0 |
| Keith Southern: Was a late change from Mark Robins to help run down the clock and add an extra body into the midfield. | 6.0 |
| Sean Scannel: Another late change from Robins to help see the game out. | 6.0 |
Man of the Match
| Adam Clayton: Huddersfield ran the midfield and had far superior domination in that area. Clayton was integral to that and his fine goal summed up what was a fine afternoon for him and his team. | 8.0 |
