Johnson puts Birmingham ahead

HT Birmingham 0 Crystal Palace 1

Andy Johnson stunned his former club Birmingham by giving Crystal Palace the lead against the run of play at St Andrews.

Johnson tucked home his eighth goal of the campaign four minutes before half-time with Palace’s first worthwhile attack of the opening 45 minutes.

Blues had been camped in the Palace half with Jesper Gronkjaer and Stan Lazaridis causing plenty of problems down the flanks. But the nearest they came close to breaking the deadlock was when Fitz Hall cleared a Dwight Yorke header off the line.

Birmingham began to build up some momentum and a powerful shot from Lazaridis struck Popovic and deflected out to Gray whose floated cross just clipped the crossbar as it flew across goal.

Upson was first to react to a corner from Savage and had space at the near post to get in a low shot but he failed to connect properly and Kiraly made a comfortable low save.

Savage then mis-kicked on the edge of the area after Gray had turned the ball into his path following another probing move involving Gronkjaer and Mario Melchiot.

Palace were giving the ball away too cheaply and, with Johnson as the only forward outlet, they were finding themselves having to deal with a stream of Birmingham pressure.

Lazaridis produced a superb run and cross from the left flank onto the head of Dwight Yorke but Popovic covered well and was able to deflect the ball out for a corner.

Granville was fortunate to escape a yellow card after chopping down Gronkjaer but he escaped with a warning from Dermot Gallagher.

Gray then appealed in vain for a penalty after being challenged by Emerson Boyce as the home side virtually camped in the Palace half.

Fitz Hall came to Palace’s rescue after 37 minutes when he cleared a close range Yorke header off the line after Kiraly was left stranded by an inswinging Savage free-kick.

But Johnson stunned the home fans by giving Palace the lead with their first worthwhile attack of the game.

Palace cleared the ball from a corner and Wayne Routledge fed the ball through to Johnson who steadied himself before clipping the ball past Maik Taylor.