Birmingham City 1, Brentford 1 (aet, Blues win 4-3 on penalties): Colin Tattum's big verdict

Oct 27 2010

Birmingham City scraped into the quarter-finals of the Carling Cup after brave Brentford took Alex McLeish’s men to a penalty shoot-out.

Kevin Phillips plundered a stoppage-time equaliser to enable Blues to squeak by into the extra period, and then another golden oldie Maik Taylor came to the fore.

The spot-kick drama ended 4-3 with Taylor taking the full blast of Craig Woodman’s kick, the 10th, deflecting it onto the crossbar.

Woodman had to score to send the fourth round tie to a sudden death lottery, but the veteran goalkeeper was too big a barrier in front of the Tilton Road End as the nerve ends frayed some more.

Phillips, Craig Gardner and Scott Dann all put away their penalties, and Michael Spillane hit the woodwork.

But Lee Bowyer hoisted his attempt high into the crowd to give Brentford a get-out at 3-2.

Stephen Carr found the bottom corner to make it 4-3 after Lewis Grabban converted, and Taylor then came up trumps, saving the decisive kick from Woodman.

It was a tough exit to take for Brentford, who put out Everton in the previous round on penalties.

They transformed themselves in the second-half and took a deserved lead through Sam Wood in the 68th minute.

But when all looked lost, up popped Phillips in the second minute of added time to extend the encounter towards its dramatic conclusion.

Blues made seven changes to their team, but McLeish opted to stick with the same formation.

Phillips played behind Garry O’Connor and Matt Derbyshire in a 4-3-1-2, later to become 4-4-2 as Blues strived to save the game.