Birmingham City FC

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• Founded:1875
• Manager:Alex McLeish

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Late drama leaves McLeish livid

07 Mar 2010 - 11:23:17

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Birmingham City boss Alex McLeish bemoaned the non-award of a second-half goal after seeing his side's FA Cup run ended by a 2-0 sixth-round defeat at Portsmouth.

McLeish claimed that had Liam Ridgewell's 80th-minute header been allowed to stand, the Blues could have gone on to deny Pompey a place in the semi-finals of the competition.

Television replays clearly showed the defender's header had crossed the line before being clawed back by goalkeeper David James.

To make matters worse for McLeish, the incident occurred on the same day that FIFA ruled out the possibility of employing goalline technology in the future.

"We should have had a lifeline with a perfectly legitimate goal but unfortunately it wasn't to be," lamented McLeish.

"It would have given us a lifeline and I wouldn't bet against my team coming back if we got that goal. They've done that this season.

"You would expect an official at this level to see that. They do the fitness tests and part of that is the vision side of things. It's a shame the guy missed that, I'm sure he will be hurting about it.

"I don't see how he could be obscured because he was over the line. Nobody was over the line so he should have been on that corner flag. James actually landed and caught it behind the line.

"I know you can't stop every part of the game but certainly for key decisions in a major competition like the FA Cup, your chances of getting to semi-finals and finals are few and far between for a little club like us."