Huddersfield Town 2 Birmingham City 1: 'Insipid' Blues leave McLeish fuming

It was Alex McLeish's first excursion on the FA Cup trail south of the border and, given the state of the pitch that greeted him, he might as well have asked his players to bring their buckets and spades with them. In fact, the Birmingham City manager of seven weeks had a young man sitting alongside him still eligible for school trips to the seaside.

It promised to be a momentous afternoon for them both: for McLeish, seven times a winner of the Scottish Cup, experiencing the English FA Cup for the first time at the age of 48; and for Jordon Mutch, taking a break from his GCSE studies at school in Alvaston, Derbyshire, to spend his first afternoon on bench duty for Birmingham, with the chance of eclipsing Trevor Francis in the record books as the club's youngest ever debutant, just 34 days past his 16th birthday.

As it happened, with his team of Premier Leaguers trailing to League One opposition from the 4th minute to the 19th, from the 81st minute to the end, and never enjoying the luxury of a lead, McLeish decided to keep the schoolboy wonder on a tight leash.

Mutch a tall, rangy midfielder did manage to get on to the heavily sanded surface but that was after the final whistle had blown.

It was probably just as well that he was out in the middle, performing shuttle runs and drills with the rest of the Birmingham substitutes. The away team dressing room would not have been the best of places in which to linger at that time.

"What is said in the dressing room stays there," McLeish said when he eventually moved on to the press room. "But I'm sure every one of the players can look in the mirror tonight and say, 'We've let ourselves down and we've let the fans down'. They were insipid. They didn't play with nearly enough composure." Unlike their hosts.

Huddersfield could hardly have shown greater assurance in snatching the hand of opportunity nine minutes from time: a smart ball down the line from Danny Schofield, a peach of a first-time cross by Luke Beckett from tight to the right byline, and a sweeping left-footed finish at the far post by Chris Brandon. It was a winner fit to grace the most pristine of Premier League pitches and it secured the underdog Terriers a top-flight scalp in their centenary year.

Weakened by injury and suspension without the talismanic Andy Booth, the dynamic Danny Cadamarteri and others Andy Ritchie's side played with conviction and cohesion.

They took an early lead when Maik Taylor failed to hold on to a Schofield shot and Beckett pounced from close range. Garry O'Connor levelled midway through the first half, when Matt Glennon parried a Fabrice Muamba shot to him, but Birmingham despite enjoying the lion's share of the chances after the break could never get a grip on the game.

"We were lucky that they were a little bit below par, I think," Ritchie reflected, "but our players were fantastic." They were that.

Goals: Beckett (4) 1-0; O'Connor (19) 1-1; Brandon (81) 2-1.

Huddersfield Town (4-4-1-1): Glennon; Collins, Sinclair, Mirfin, Williams (Skarz, h-t); Kamara (Jevons, 78), Berrett, Holdsworth, Brandon; Schofield; Beckett. Substitutes not used: Smithies (gk), Young, Killock.

Birmingham City (4-4-2): Taylor; Kelly, Ridgewell, Jaidi, Queudrue; Larsson, Muamba, De Ridder, McSheffrey; Forssell (Jerome, 62), O'Connor. Substitutes not used: Doyle (gk), Sadler, Parnaby, Mutch.

Referee: S Tanner (Somerset).

Booked: Huddersfield Berrett, Skarz, Brandon; Birmingham Queudrue, Ridgewell, Jaidi.

Man of the match: Brandon.

Attendance: 13,410.