Black stands by Birmingham City keeper Kingson

Nov 26 2007 By Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail

ERIC Black said he stood by his decision to drop Maik Taylor and hand Richard Kingson his Premier League debut.

Kingson's awful error in the 34th minute gifted Portsmouth the lead and rocked the side.

Black admitted it was a 'nightmare' for the Ghanaian international, who only has two Carling Cup appearances under his belt for Blues, the second of which ended before half-time when he collided with a post at Blackburn Rovers making a save.

"He merited it (his selection) and it was what I wanted to do," said the caretaker manager. "It was a nightmare scenario for him and no-one was more disappointed than Richard about conceding the goal.

"He showed a strong mentality to come back from it. He made a couple of saves, including a brave one at the feet (of Benjani) and didn't let it affect him.

"The goal killed us. It didn't help as it was 0-0 at the time. But as for the decision, I stick by it. They looked a top-quality team. "We were playing against 10 and 11million-pound players.

"Their back four and their two centre-halves were magnificent."

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