McLeish baffled by decision

Blues manager feels Ridgewell's effort should have stood

Last updated: 6th March 2010   Subscribe to RSS Feed

McLeish baffled by decision

McLeish: Puzzled

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Alex McLeish admitted he was left in a state of disbelief following Birmingham's exit from the FA Cup.

Blues were trailing Portsmouth 2-0 with 10 minutes remaining when Liam Ridgewell appeared to have pulled a goal back with a header.

The ball looked to have bounced over the goal-line before David James scrambled it away but a goal was not given and Pompey held on to progress to the semi-finals.

McLeish was puzzled by the decision but also disappointed that his players did not show enough cutting edge to open the scoring.

Frederic Piquionne eventually broke the deadlock on 67 minutes and then fired in a second before Ridgewell's effort was controversially ruled out.

"I just don't know how it could have been disallowed," said McLeish.

"It was not as though it was a close call. The whole of the ball was over the line.

"For an hour I thought we were the better side, our build-up was composed and we looked in control.

"But we did not make enough chances up front and when we did, we did not take them."

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