Bulgarians bounce back as reserves beat Everton

Wednesday, April 28th, 2009, 7pm

Regional Athletics Arena - Att: 190

City: Hart, Ramsey, McGivern, Mee, McDonald, Kay, Weiss, Tsiaklis, Ball, Bojinov, Petrov (Moore 85).

Unused subs: T Johansen, Poole, Morris, Mitchell.

Everton: Nash, Nsiala, Barnett, Wallace (Craig 91), McCarten, Rodwell (Forshaw 46), Gosling, Akpan, Agard, Kissock, Baxter.

Unused subs: Jensen, Sheppard, Codling.

Goals:  0-1 (McDonald o.g. 61), 1-1 (Bojinov 67), 2-1 (Bojinov 70), 3-1 (Petrov 76)

Bookings:

City: None.

Everton: None.

The Match

A PAIR of goals from Valeri Bojinov and a spectacular effort from Martin Petrov helped fire the reserves to a 3-1 win over Everton, and give Mark Hughes some food for thought ahead of an important run of games.

It was a quiet opening to the final Barclays Premier Reserve league game of the season at a chilly Regional Athletics Arena, with the best chance of the opening 15 minutes falling to City, a decent combination of passes ending when a cross from the left was headed over by Scott Kay.

Vladimir Weiss proved to be a thorn in Everton’s side all night, and the Slovakian did well on 19 minutes, dancing into the box and seeing his cutback cleared by an Everton defender. The Toffees took their time to find their feet, but on 28 Kissock broke down the left and fired a shot across Joe Hart that went just wide of the post.

Martin Petrov beat two men a couple of minutes later to cross towards Bojinov. His fellow countryman was just short of connecting with a flying header, and Weiss then shot wide as he tried to make amends.

Hart was called upon just before the break, denying Kissock with a fine save to his right. At the other end, Martin Petrov nearly found the target but the score stayed level thanks to a familiar face, former City stopper Carlo Nash clearing the danger with his feet.

Weiss continued to torment the visitors after the break, a great run through the middle ending with a stinging shot that flew just wide on 52 minutes. City were unlucky to fall behind nine minutes later, Clayton McDonald turning the ball into his own net when attempting to clear a cross.

This bad luck spurred City into upping their efforts, and two minutes later the ball was in the net. Bojinov’s audacious overhead kick was well saved by Nash, and David Ball nodded the rebound home – but the offside flag was waved as soon as the ball went in.

But we only had to wait four more minutes for a deserved equaliser. Valeri Bojinov collected the ball around 30 yards out, and acting quickly he looped it over Nash to level the scores in fine style.

The 22-year-old was on target again in a less spectacular but equally effective style three minutes later, providing an assured finish to some slick interplay between the entire City front four.

Martin Petrov provided the coup-de-grace in magnificent style on 76 minutes. The flying winger sprinted down the left flank and collected a pass, chipped the ball up to himself then fired a rocket past the helpless Nash. It was an almost unbelievable finish from a player whose season has been  nearly ruined by injury, and showed he is fighting fit for the rest of the season.

There was still time for Bojinov to go close to grabbing a hat trick, his shot following a good break going wide, while Everton pressed to no avail.