Teams

Birmingham
Schofield, Farmer, Sissons, Watts, Smith, Neal, Astall, Gordon, Weston, Murphy, Hooper.
Burnley
Blacklaw, Angus, Elder, Adamson, Cummings, Miller, Meredith, McIlroy, Pointer, Robson, Pilkington.

This game was a rearranged fixture which should have originally been played on the 13th February but was called off due to snow.

A look at the League tables printed here will tell you exactly why this game was a must win match for both teams, albeit for entirely different reasons, Birmingham hoping to avoid the drop into League Division 2 and Burnley hopeful of maintaining their challenge at the top.

The game itself turned out to be an absolute nailbiter as both sides tried to overcome their many nerves and also had to contend with a very poor pitch which was patchy, dusty and bumpy not really good enough for a game of this importance.

The Clarets forwards having the majority of the play but just could not find that vital killer instinct when it mattered, luckily for us the defence didn't seem to suffer as much by way of nerves, and they managed quite well to subdue any kind of threat from the City attack. The game was played at a very high tempo with thrills and spills at both ends, the tension could be felt all around the ground, and it was some relief when with 81 minutes on the clock Pilkington hammered in the only goal of the game. Although the last 10 minutes of the game could have seen an equaliser as Birmingham piled on the pressure, they hit us with everything but the kitchen sink, but Adamson our rock and Captain marvellous managed to steer our defence to a very hard earned victory.

This win meant that Burnley were now on 52 points level with Wolves, but vitally important we still had two games to play and Wolves only one.

Programme Review

Just the one change to the teams printed in the programme, Sissons in for Allen.

The Birmingham programme was a 12 pager costing 3d and was much better than the Blackpool one, with much more interesting comment.

Next game: Burnley v Fulham - Saturday 30th April 1960.