Once, Birmingham City and Aston Villa could have joined forces to conquer Europe. That was what City officials proposed in 1955, when their club were invited to become the first English participants in European competition, but Villa rejected the idea. So Birmingham contested the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup by themselves, and over the next few seasons enjoyed successful campaigns on the continent – 50 years ago this month they became the first English club to play in a European final, losing in the Fairs Cup decider to Barcelona. This could be the season in which they finally secure a return – but that may entail leapfrogging the team in the last of England's Europa League places, one spot and two points above Birmingham: Aston Villa.
If Birmingham pull off that unlikely feat, it will partially be because, unlike in 1955, they have been reinforced by former Villa players. Liam Ridgewell has been a mainstay of their defence all season, Kevin Phillips has struck important goals, and against Everton another who once earned a living at Villa Park finally made a goal-scoring contribution. Craig Gardner's equaliser in the 52nd minute was his first goal for the club he supported as a child and since joining from their biggest rivals in January. "Anybody who has any doubt about him [because of his Villa connection] should realise now that he's a proud local Blues fan," said the manager Alex McLeish.
"He was ill before the game but he said he was OK. I knew when I signed him that he's got that heart and is the type of character that would play through injury and illness, but I still had to say 'you can't let us down here – if you're going to collapse after 20 minutes it's a problem'." Gardner played almost an hour, during which his dynamism, in addition to his goal, helped his side recover from two goals down and salvage a point that spared them losing ground to Villa, and prevented Everton from gaining any on either of them.
When Victor Anichebe and Aiyegbeni Yakubu struck twice within three minutes in the first half they not only gave Everton a seemingly commanding lead, but also became the first team September to score twice at St Andrews. They could have inflicted more damage but when Cameron Jerome cut the deficit by wafting a Keith Fahey cross into the net, Birmingham rallied. Gardner's subsequent equaliser was deserved. Gardner's form proved that Birmingham have greater depth than earlier in the season. In recent weeks that has enabled McLeish to practise rotation for the first time, a welcome option as players who excelled earlier in the campaign started to suffer from fatigue. McLeishstill believes that the other clubs challenging for Europe have greater playing resources, though not superior mental ones."The other teams might have bigger squads than us and more experience and maybe more quality, but our players again showed terrific resilience," said McLeish. "They will never give up."
David Moyes, meanwhile, bemoaned "an opportunity lost" by his team. Everton also lost three players – Tim Cahill limped off with calf trouble, while the extent of the ankle injury that forced Anichebe off has yet to be ascertained but Landon Donovan has played his last game for Everton for now, having flown back to LA Galaxy yesterday at the expiry of his loan. However, with Major League Soccer players threatening to delay the start of the American season by striking for better pay, Moyes retains a small hope that he may return. "We'll try to work something out, you never know," he said.
