Forest U21 3-1 Birmingham U21

Birmingham City’s U21 side faced an in form Nottingham Forest team at the City Ground in their last league fixture. They had only lost one game all season but this was to be their second. A good performance from the home side meant that all 3 points stayed in Nottingham.

According to the official bcfc.com website, the team was:

Blues Under-21s: Weaver, Cotton, Seddon, Baba, Harding, Mbende, McFarlane, Truslove, Popa (Jones, 59), Brown, O’Neill.
Subs not used: Trueman, O’Keeffe, Hale.

The first chance of note came after 15 minutes. Kyle McFarlane has just come back from a successful one month loan spell with Nuneaton and it was good to see he started as he left off. He played a delightful pass onto George O’Neill but he couldn’t get his shot on target.

This shot hadn’t worked the goalkeeper but within minutes the Forest goalkeeper made 2 outstanding saves. The first came from the defender Seddon. He made a darting run forward before unleashing a pile driver that the goalkeeper somehow managed to push to safety. McFarlane then drove a shot in following the rebound which the goalkeeper again made a superb save from.

Despite the early pressure from Birmingham, it was the hosts that took the lead after 20 minutes.Deimantis Petravicius, who plays out wide for Forest, picked the ball up from inside his own half. He jinxed through several players before zipping the ball low and into the corner. A fine goal, not that dissimilar than Ryan Giggs’ against Arsenal.

Half time; 1-0 Forest.

Just after the restart, the Forest lead was extended. Walker, who was having a good game for the hosts, curled a shot in which had delightful placement to curl inside the right hand post. 2-0 to Nottingham Forest.
In response to this, Birmingham brought on Alex Jones, who had been sent on loan to Wellington Phoenix but his loan had been refused. He came on for Popa, which is a shame as I love seeing their partnership blossom.

Birmingham for much of the game had been the better side. They deserved a goal and they got it from Kyle McFarlane, a lad who I believe is very talented. He picked up a ball from Reece Brown and placed a powerful effort beyond the dive of the goalkeeper. A lovely finish. 2-1; deficit halved.

Seddon, who was my player of the match, was getting forward at every opportunity and really made the Forest goalkeeper work. However, on the several shots that he had to deal with, he came out on top. The game was all but over for the Blues’ when Thorne curled a free kick into the top corner with 15 minutes to go.

3-1 was the final score and it was the finishing that was the difference on the day.