Bruce frustrated as Birmingham draw again
Bruce’s team, built at a cost of up to €29m played out their fifth consecutive Premiership draw and have won only once in the last 18, but he said: “It takes time for players to gel. We have no divine right to come here and beat Southampton, an established Premiership team since day one, because we’ve been in the top division only two years.
“It is all ifs and buts and of the five draws we could have won two or three quite easily. You could look at it another way and say we are unbeaten in six, including the League Cup, but we thought we had done enough in the second half to win it today.”
Bruce refused to blame Darren Anderton for not putting away a golden 77th minute chance when his volley was saved by Antti Niemi.
Bruce said: “The save was unbelievable. We had a better chance earlier when David Dunn put one over the bar. But Anderton did well. This was only his second Premiership game since last January but he showed he can still play. He’ll be fine.
“What we lack is a predator in the box. We can’t score goals at the moment and it is just the same for Southampton. We are missing Mikael Forssell who was among the top scorers in the country last season.”
On-loan Forssell, who hit the target 19 times last term, has been out since mid September and Bruce explained why he took off Dwight Yorke his replacement in the second half: “Dwight has an ankle knock and we have another game on Wednesday.”
Birmingham were also still without the injured Muzzy Izzet and Stan Lazaridis but that was nothing compared with Saints’ crocks. With James Beattie, Kevin Phillips and Peter Crouch all out injured, head coach Steve Wigley had to play 18-year-old Dexter Blackstock as a lone-striker until Brett Ormerod appeared as a 64th minute substitute.
Saints have not scored a Premiership goal now in 397 minutes since Anders Svensson netted against Newcastle five games ago but fellow-Swede Mikael Nilsson should have netted just before half time instead of shooting into the side-netting after going past stranded goalkeeper Maik Taylor.
Wigley is hopeful Phillips (torn calf) and defender Graeme Le Saux will be fit to return against Arsenal next Saturday but first has to deal with Carling Cup giant-killers Colchester United at St Mary’s on Wednesday.
SOUTHAMPTON: Niemi, Kenton, Lundekvam, Jakobsson, Van Damme, Nilsson (Ormerod 64), Anders Svensson, Delap, McCann, Blackstock, Fernandes (Prutton 89).
BIRMINGHAM: Maik Taylor, Melchiot, Upson, Cunningham, Gray, Anderton, Dunn (Clapham 81), Savage, Johnson, Heskey, Yorke (Gronkjaer 64).
Referee: M Dean (Wirral).
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