ENGLISH LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP PROMOTION RACE: Reading 1 Birmingham City 2IN THE end the man with the €70-million touch was a €330,000 Irish midfielder named Keith Fahey, a failed Arsenal trainee whose homesickness following his move to Aston Villa in 2000 sent him back to his own land, and non-league football, after just two seasons.
Kevin Phillips may have got the winner, and it was a fine one, turning the ball beyond Marcus Hahnemann on the hour. But the 26-year-old plucked by Alex McLeish in January from St Patrick’s Athletic – where Fahey had moved from Bluebell United in 2003 – scored the opener, before providing the clever pass in to the 35-year-old which secured City’s instant bounce back into the division of Big Beasts.
That €70 million is the estimate of Deloitte, the football finance gurus, of what Premier League status is worth. Yet achieving it might also tax a few years from the life expectancy of those involved, as McLeish confirmed.
“It was a bit of an ordeal in the last 20 minutes but the players stood firm and we got over the line,” the Scot said, his face turned an even redder hue from immense satisfaction. “It is up there with the greatest achievements I have had as a manager because I know just how much it meant to people and Blues fans all over the world.
“This is up with the best things I have done. I know how much it means to get to the Premier League – the financial side of things – because there are so many terrific clubs in this Championship division who have been Premier League clubs before.”
Reading did manage to score through Marek Matejovsky in the 61st minute but that ultimately was not enough. For them the play-offs await. “It’s a second opportunity,” their manager, Steve Coppell, said. That slice of fraught soccer fun begins next weekend.
GuardianService
