STEVE BRUCE criticised his players’ showboating against Hull City at the weekend, but last night the Birmingham City team who navigated their way to the top of the Coca-Cola Championship were strictly tugboats.
A workmanlike performance ground out a win achieved despite the sending-off of Nicklas Bendtner, the young Denmark striker, whose indiscipline showed that he is a Danish Blue who has yet to mature.
Bendtner, on loan from Arsenal, received two bookings in a minute midway through the second half, the first for dissent and the second for raising an arm in retaliation against Marc Bircham. Having dominated until then, taking the lead through Bruno N’Gotty’s first-half header, Birmingham withstood a sustained Queens Park Rangers rally until Cameron Jerome’s lob in the final seconds confirmed their victory.
Bendtner has impressed in scoring three goals this season and Eric Black, Bruce’s assistant, said that the 18-year-old would learn from his sending-off. “He’s a young lad with a massive talent,” Black said. “It’s experience for him. It [the red card] had a massive impact on the game. People ask if we’ve got passion — that was answered without question today.”
The better team until Bendtner’s departure, Birmingham took a 23rd-minute lead when N’Gotty headed home Gary McSheffrey’s curling free kick. The latter also tested Paul Jones, the QPR goalkeeper, after wriggling away from three opponents, while D. J. Campbell struck the inside of a post and shot straight at Jones when sent clear by David Dunn.
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Jerome scored his first goal for the club since his £3 million move in the summer from Cardiff City when he pounced on an error by Matthew Rose, but QPR also gave hope to their fans. “Everyone wrote us off before the game, but we put in a reasonable performance,” Gary Waddock, the manager, said.
At half-time, Waddock sent on Ray Jones, 6ft 4in, to form a forward partnership with Marc Nygaard, who is an inch taller, demonstrating that the club that gave Peter Crouch his break in football have a fondness for giant strikers. But it was Birmingham who scaled the heights in the table.
QUEENS PARK RANGERS (4-4-2): P Jones — M Rose, D Stewart, Z Rehman (sub: S Baidoo, 74min), M Milanese — E Oliseh, M Bircham, N Ward, L Cook — M Nygaard, D Blackstock (sub: R Jones, 46). Substitutes not used: J Cole, S Bailey, P Kanyuka.
BIRMINGHAM CITY (4-4-2): Maik Taylor — D Johnson, R Jaidi, B N’Gotty, S Larsson — N Danns, F Muamba (sub: Martin Taylor, 90), D Dunn (sub: N Kilkenny, 76), G McSheffrey — N Bendtner, D Campbell (sub: C Jerome, 71). Substitutes not used: C Doyle, M Forssell. Booked: Johnson, Dunn, Bendtner. Sent off: Bendtner.
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Referee: P Melin.