Bruce left blue by “naive” Brummies

STEVE BRUCE turned the air blue as his “naive” Birmingham side stumbled out of the cauldron of Goodison Park.

Bruce believes his own players were largely to blame for giving the Everton crowd a reason to get behind their team and roar them onto victory.

The home supporters were angry when Mikael Forssell played on, despite Birmingham substitute Garry O’Connor being on the ground with an injury.

Everton’s Tim Cahill eventually kicked the ball out of play, but Olivier Kapo returned possession by kicking the ball deep into the home side’s half – an incident which infuriated the crowd.

Bruce said: “There are a lot of young players in the side who must stop being naive and learn, then we will be okay.

“I told Forssell he should have kicked the ball out, when he had the chance. What happened then is that the home crowd got their backs up, they were annoyed with what happened and it sparked their team into action. Little things like that change matches.”

Birmingham had been outplayed for much of the game and were a goal behind to a first-half Ayegbeni Yakubu strike. Kapo equalised with 11 minutes left but, spurred on by the home crowd, Lee Carsley and James Vaughan wrapped up Everton’s victory with two late goals.

EVERTON (4-4-2): Howard 6, Neville 5, Yobo 5, Stubbs 5 (Jagielka 22, 6), Lescott 6, Arteta 6, Carsley 7, Osman 6 (Vaughan 80, 6), Pienaar 7 (Gravesen 85, 4), Cahill 7, Yakubu 7.

Subs Not Used: Wessels, McFadden.

BIRMINGHAM: Maik Taylor 6, Kelly 5, Schmitz 6, Djourou 4, Ridgewell 7, De Ridder 5 (Forssell 79, 5), Muamba 4, Nafti 4 (McSheffrey 71, 5), Larsson 4 (O’Connor 52, 5), Kapo 7, Jerome 5.

Subs Not Used: Kingson, Danns.

REFEREE: Mike Riley (Yorkshire) 6: Goodison has not been a happy place for referees this season, but Riley’s common-sense approach did not court controversy.

MATCH RATING: ** A dramatic finish at least ensured that a largely dull encounter ended on a high.