Birmingham City vs Leeds United. Sky Bet Championship.
St. Andrew's StadiumAttendance20,321.
Saturday 4 March 2017 10:01, UK
Chris Wood scored twice for Leeds as they tightened their grip on a Sky Bet Championship play-off spot with a 3-1 win at Birmingham.
The New Zealand international opened the scoring early in the first half at St Andrew's, and restored the away side's lead after Craig Gardner's strike just after the hour had brought Birmingham level. Substitute Alfonso Pedraza then sealed the win late on as Leeds, in fourth, moved 11 points clear of Fulham in seventh.
Wood's brace took his tally to 22 for the season in the second tier, taking him clear of Newcastle forward Dwight Gayle as the top scorer in the division.
For Gianfranco Zola, though, it was another demoralising defeat and a trip back to reality after their fine win at Wolves last week. The Blues stay 14th.
It was Birmingham who started the brighter of the two sides, with David Davis and Che Adams both having decent chances to put them in front before Wood did just that for Leeds.
The striker barely had a kick for the first 14 minutes, but Luke Ayling's long ball over the top managed to deceive Ryan Shotton, and Wood latched onto it with a clever first-time dink over the helpless Tomasz Kuszczak.
Birmingham reacted well to the setback, but failed to really go close to equalising until just two minutes before the break, as Robert Tesche's superbly-struck effort from 30 yards rattled the Leeds crossbar before Rob Green denied Emilio Nsue's follow-up attempt.
The difference a clinical striker can make to a side was made obvious early in the second half as Birmingham forward Adams had no fewer than four chances to level the game in two minutes - miscuing two headers from six-odd yards, steering a shot over then forcing a good save from Green after getting in behind.
But they did finally get the equaliser they deserved after 63 minutes as Stuart Dallas could only half clear the ball as far as Gardner, and his well-struck effort from 25 yards took a slight nick off the Leeds man before sailing into the bottom corner.
Parity for Zola's side, however, was extremely short-lived thanks to Wood. Kalvin Phillips, on as a substitute for Leeds in the second half, played a one-two into the box with Souleymane Doukara before feeding his striker, and Wood had the simplest of tasks to slot home.
And there would be no way back for Birmingham as Leeds killed the game off in the 81st minute, swarming forward after winning possession back as Wood and Pablo Hernandez combined to feed Pedraza, who finished low across Kuszczak with his first goal for the club.
Birmingham boss Gianfranco Zola:
"For large parts of the game we were dominant, played good football and made chances. We deserved more much than that, we played a very good game, whereas Leeds tried to stay in the game and were then clinical with their opportunities.
"But I've got nothing to say to my players, they just need to keep doing what they're doing. We played proper football and that's very encouraging. If we had been a bit more clinical we'd be discussing another result.
"We had a couple of shouts [for penalties] and a couple of fouls in dangerous areas on Lukas [Jutkiewicz] which the [officials] didn't see, which was disappointing."
Leeds boss Garry Monk:
"[Wood] is as crucial as everyone else, he's scored a good number of goals and we're very happy for him. But it's the team who help him with those opportunities, he's very much a team player, we're very much a team and you can see that. Our mentality is our strongest part.
"For the first 60 minutes we weren't at our best. Credit to Birmingham we had a lot of defending to do, which we did well, but from that point we grew into the game really well and started to get on the front foot, looked dangerous and got good goals at good times.
"I'm very happy with the three points, which was the main part as it's always difficult playing away. Birmingham are obviously fighting very hard for wins, but in the end we won the game comfortably."
