Aston Villa 0, Birmingham City 0 - Colin Tattum's derby day analysis

Nov 1 2010 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

ALEX McLeish has spoken a fair bit recently about Blues’ penalty woes.It’s those that they don’t tend to get given in comparison to a favourable opposition return.

Laced with heavy irony, he stated that ‘‘one of our guys will have to get hit with a baseball bat’’ before a decision falls their way.

He’s probably right: Nigel Reo-Coker wasn’t so equipped when he clearly transgressed.

Howard Webb had a good old peer at the 38th-minute incident and opted for the quiet life, much to Blues’ chagrin.

Roger Johnson’s downward header from a corner was misdirected and Reo-Coker ushered it under control with his forearm before clearing.

It would have happened in this game, too, so raw to Blues remains the spot-kick that Martin Atkinson gave for a Johnson tackle on Gabriel Agbonlahor in April.

A draw was a fair result, and perhaps unsurprising considering the Birmingham rivals’ recent travails, especially in front of goal.

It’s almost six hours without a goal for Villa in the league now.

But the ‘‘what ifs?’’ of that moment linger. Had Blues been given the penalty and scored, you would have backed them to keep the advantage.

There was a counter-argument that Ben Foster’s Harald Schumacher impression on Ciaran Clark in the second half was reckless, and a penalty.

Clark got to John Carew’s header first but nodded the ball wide and took a hefty whack on the nose from Foster as he and Scott Dann flew into a three-man coming together. Rarely do referees side with the attacker in such a case and Webb, again, didn’t appear keen to mire himself in controversy.

He showed the yellow card to Nikola Zigic for an elbow-led aerial challenge on James Collins shortly after the Reo-Coker penalty shout.

Collins, to his credit, didn’t make a meal of it and Zigic, probably because of his height and ungainly manner, was given the benefit of the doubt.