BIRMINGHAM CITY 1 CITY 4
League Division 1
22nd April 1978
Attendance 25,294
Scorers
City (Owen 59 pen), Kidd(66 & 77), Power(88)
Birmingham Sbragia(57)
ref Mr R Lewis
City Corrigan, Clements, Donachie, Booth, Watson, Owen, Kidd, Channon, Bell, Hartford, Power – sub Doyle
Birmingham Montgomery, Calderwood, Pendrey, Towers, Gallagher, Sbragia, Dillon, Francis, Bertschin, Hibbitt, Fox – sub Page
from the article ‘THAT WAS THE WEEK’ from the City programme 24th April 1999
Will 0′ the wisp midfield player Gary Owen emerged as a natural penalty kick expert during the 1977/78 season. During his time with the Blues, he scored nine penalties in all, the first a match winner at Leicester in January 1978, and the second was one at St Andrews in what became a rather special week for City, as the Reserves won the Central League championship for the first time since they became inaugural members in 1911.
The first team were in fifth place while Birmingham were mid-table… Our hosts had several City connections, one being Tony Towers, a Manchester lad who had gone to Sunderland in March 1974 in part-exchange for Dennis Tueart and Mick Horswill.
The Midlanders had a relatively new manager in Jim Smith, who had taken over from Sir Alf Ramsey the previous month, and he would have been pleased by his side’s domination for the first hour.
Captain Terry Hibbitt had a splendid game, while youngsters Steve Fox and Kevin Dillon showed how much they had progressed since their introduction to the first team.
The first half remained goalless, but Birmingham took the lead after 57 minutes. Ricky Sbragia failed to connect with an attempted header from Hibbitt’s free kick but suddenly found the ball at his feet and rammed it past Joe Corrigan.
An equaliser came within three minutes. Owen put a neat ball into Channon’s path, and when he was up-ended by Joe Gallagher, Owen scored from the spot.
Channon was also involved in the next goal. After 66 minutes, Fox dispossessed the striker, only to see his clearance run straight to Brian Kidd… who cleverly steered the ball past Montgomery.
Dillon was next to make an error, an attempted clearance enabling Kidd to knock in his second, and the final score became 4-1 when Paul Power coolly converted a pass from Channon.