Bolton battle to the last to beat Birmingham 3-2 in the FA Cup quarters

Birmingham 2 – Bolton 3 (FA Cup quarter-final, March 12, 2011) (Longer highlights & Official highlights.) With both sides resorting to long ball tactics it was Bolton who broke the deadlock in the 21st minute when Johan Elmander raced onto Klasnic’s through-ball and the Swede had little problem beating Foster. Birmingham equalised in the 38th minute from yet another long ball move as Cameron Jerome came in from the left to head the ball forward, the ball came back into Jerome’s path and the drought-stricken forward netted his first goal of 2011 with a tidy hit into the near post. Midway through the second half the Trotters retook the leas when Kevin Davies smashed home from spot after clumsy challenge by Curtis Davies. But Birmingham proved why they should never be written off this season when Kevin Phillips equalised in the 80th, the evergreen striker collecting a long ball with his back to goal and lifting an absolutely sublime effort over Jaaskelainen and into the top corner. With a minute remaining Bolton scored a third as Kevin Davies headed a pinged cross in the box to Chung-Young Lee who made no mistake from four yards out.

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