Birmingham World reporter Charlie Haffenden's reacts to Birmingham City 0-2 Peterborough United in the Vertu Trophy final at Wembley Stadium/
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00Birmingham City's trip to Wembley has ended in disappointment.
00:05Peterborough United running out 2-0 victors here at Wembley Stadium in the Virtue Trophy Final.
00:10Chris Davies' men, they won the league, they're promoted this week.
00:13It was meant to be a historic hat-trick, completing the week with a trophy win here under the famous arch.
00:19However, it was not to be.
00:21Harley Vale, the fantastic free kick for Peterborough in the 15th minute,
00:24and then Hector Cipriano just before the break putting a second dagger in Blues Hearts.
00:29A fantastic finish just inside the area, into the roof of the net.
00:33The first goal, the free kick, was absolutely sublime.
00:36A curler from about 25 yards, a difficult angle, goes for the keeper's side, in off the crossbar,
00:42giving Ryan Olsopp a full stretch, absolutely no chance.
00:45If anything, I think Birmingham, they had all of the ball in the game,
00:49and they were probably the better team in terms of possession.
00:51However, the chances, they weren't able to create too many whatsoever.
00:55It was a bit too little too late towards the end.
00:57Jay Stansfield moving out to the left flank with Alfie May.
00:59Coming on for the second half made a difference.
01:02Lukas Djukovic coming on for a late cameo,
01:04seeing a volley save the point-blank range by former Aston Villa man Jed Steer
01:09in between the sticks for Peterborough.
01:10But, as I say, the chances, they didn't really flow until the end of the game.
01:14Blue Nose is nearly 50,000 of them here at Wembley.
01:19That's one thing to be proud of today, is just the immense support from the Blues fans.
01:22But they were very disappointed, and they'll go home disappointed.
01:25This was meant to be a day of celebration and defiance, but Chris Davies' men,
01:31they were just toothless for much of the game.
01:33It was just a lack of desire, a lack of urgency to get forward.
01:37Yes, they had the ball.
01:38Yes, they were crunching in for challenges,
01:40but they didn't have the pace and intensity and the tempo to really cause any problems for Peterborough.
01:45Darren Ferguson now won it three times as a manager and one time as a player.
01:50Of course, Peterborough are the reigning champions heading into today,
01:53the first team in history to ever retain their title.
01:56They used the experience from last year well.
01:57They sit in, they compacted in a low block.
02:00But they also went for it at times.
02:02Whenever there was an opportunity to go and press and push on forwards,
02:05they had the pace on the wings and through the centre to cause Birmingham problems.
02:09Some big tackles in the end from Ethan Laird, Christoph Plara and Ben Davies to keep Blues in the game.
02:15Ryan Allstop as well with a decent double save.
02:18One was quite impressive to deny Poku.
02:20But just not good enough, as I say, on the attack for Blues.
02:24We have seen it at times this season.
02:25As much as they've been dominant in the league and they're potentially going to go and get a record points total in league on history,
02:31potentially in EFL history as well, there have been games where it hasn't quite been their day.
02:37Those days haven't come around too often.
02:39Birmingham typically do end up on top of things.
02:41They did against Peterborough earlier in the season.
02:43They went 2-0 down at St. Andrews and they came back to win the game.
02:46However, this time they just didn't have that same kind of mouse on the ball,
02:50didn't have the ability to get in behind and cause problems often enough.
02:54And Peterborough, fair place for them.
02:56Barry Fry once again has the last laugh.
02:59The last time was in 1995 as manager of Birmingham City.
03:03Today, he's the chairman of Peterborough and he's delighted to go home with the title once again.
03:08Birmingham, very disappointed.
03:10Understandably so.
03:11But still an incredible week.
03:13Securing promotion to the championship for the first time of asking.
03:16A league won title with six games to go.
03:18And now six matches to try and see out the season on a high.
03:21What a season it's been.
03:23Just a shame they couldn't play more silverware here at Wembley.