Saturday 22 January 2005 - Twerton Park - kick off 3.00pm Southern League Premier Division

Almost from the opening kick-off the visitors plan was clear – defend in numbers and try to catch City on the break. And for all City’s possession it worked perfectly. With Scott Partridge and Bobby Ford still sidelined with injury their attacking efforts were, at best, lacking in variation or pace. Or to be more truthful, slow and predictable. The first five minutes saw John Williams shoot straight at keeper Gayle and Alex Sykes fail to hit the target from a similar range. They were then given a warning on 12 minutes of what was to come from Solihull. A clearance out of defence allowed Smith to race clear and he brought a full stretch stop out of Paul Evans. And two minutes later they repeated the trick with Jackson breaking away down the right flank. He choose to cross rather than shoot but fortunately for City it curled behind the incoming Barry and the danger was cleared. Where City were getting some joy was down their right wing with Jimmy Benefield and Ben Cleverley looking the most likely to open up Solihull’s packed defence. The former saw one cross headed over by Williams but several more ended up closer to the few fans dotted around the sparsely populated terraces than a black and white clad teammate. Equally, for all Cleverley’s probing – it was far and away his best game in a City shirt – the end product was nearly always lacking. Three minutes before the break City came their closest to breaking the deadlock when Sykes’ corner was cleared as far as Benefield. He did very well to get his shot on target but Barry was perfectly placed to clear off the line.

The second half continued in the same pattern, although if possible City took more possession but looked less threatening. Long before the 75th minute when Gary Owers finally made a change – replacing Benefield and the ineffectual Luke Corbett with Darren Hawkins and Ricky Hulbert – the City contingent in the crowd were being to get more and more frustrated with their side’s inability to find a way through Borough’s defence. Hulbert did seem to perk City’s attacking line up and it was his involvement on the edge of the box that saw the ball break to Graeme Power. He got a low shot on target only for Gayle to save with his legs. And from the following clearance the Birmingham side scored. The ball was fired forward where Taylor raced into the space left by Power’s up-field adventures and he easily slotted it past Evans. City still had over ten minutes to rescue something from the game but they looked shattered by this blow and failed to create even a half chance in the closing stages. The crowd’s reaction at the final summed up their feelings on the fare served up before them and many more performances like that will leave City’s play-off ambitions little more than a sad joke.