Leeds matched Birmingham City for most of a dull game at St. Andrew’s, but lost to a 36^th minute goal from Nikola Zigic.

Simon Grayson made just one change to his starting line-up, with Snodgrass having recovered from his back injury in time to replace Vayrynen, but we had a couple of formalities to go through before kick-off. First Birmingham City’s pre-match video reminded us that they’ve won nothing except the League Cup, while they had to pad out the legends section with four clips of Trevor Francis.

Then we had an ELO record to remind us of the city’s rich musical heritage, before the teams were announced and we had the first outbreak of chanting about Marlon King’s conviction for indecent assault. I’m sure that back in the eighties the West Midlands police would have ejected half the Leeds fans for that sort of language, but these days they seem to take a bit more relaxed attitude towards policing their football.

Birmingham put Leeds under pressure in the early stages by forcing a series of corners, but somehow failed to spot that we left Johnny Howson to mark the giant Nikola Zigic. From one of the corners Rachubka came off his line and collided with a Bluenose striker rather than getting anywhere near the ball, but somehow we got away with it.

Having weathered that little storm, we started to create the better chances at the other end. A great move involving O’Dea, Pugh, Keogh and Mc.Cormack deserved a goal, but unfortunately Snodgrass dragged his shot accoss the goal and just past the far post. And when a Leeds corner was only cleared to the edge of the area Clayton struck a terrific shot which Myhill just managed to tip over the bar.

But just as it looked as though Leeds could go on to take control of the game, we fell behind to a goal in the 36^th minute, which came Rachubka flapped at a cross from Carr, but could only palm it on to Zigic. I thought for a second that Lees had blocked it on the line, but it crept in off the post. Our keeper partially made amends just before the break when he used his legs to keep out another shot from Zigic, but overall the Leeds fans behind his goal were less than impressed with his performance.

After the break Leeds enjoyed most of the possession as we went in search of an equaliser, but we never really looked like breaking down an experienced and well organised Birmingham side. It wasn’t for the want of trying on Grayson’s part, as he kept on introducing new players as he looked for an effective strike. First Becchio came on for Keogh, then Sam for Pugh and finally Vayrynen for Clayton.

But for all our manager’s post-match claims that we were unlucky to lose, we didn’t create many clear-cut chances in the second period. He might have been better off taking Snodgrass off, as the scot didn’t have one of his better games, and at one stage had O’Dea shouting at him to hurry up and take a corner as time was running out. By now Boaz Myhill was taking about a month over each goal kick, but at least he had the excuse of being on the side that was winning.

The nearest we came to an equaliser was a fierce dipping shot from Mc.Cormack eight minutes from time, which Myhill did well to turn over the bar. Apart from that Birmingham were holding out fairly comfortably, and at the other end Zigic was close to making the game safe, but Rachubka managed to tip his header over the bar. Five minutes injury time were allowed, but for once a Leeds game went by without a very late goal for either side, and our eight game unbeaten run had come to an end.

We were told that we’d be kept behind “for a short time” by the police, which turned out to be 15 minutes stuck in the tunnel underneath the away end while the home fans went on their way, but we must have done something right, because today the police have praised us for our behaviour.

The result leaves us stuck in fifth place, with Birmingham only one point behind with two games in hand. They are starting to get things together and they will probably be challenging for promotion if their European adventure doesn’t wear them out with too many games. For our part, I think we look enough to make the play-offs, but on this performance we don’t seem to have quite enough quality to finish in the top two.