Birmingham City

Birmingham fan gets ejected after fighting with club’s own supporters in defeat against Watford

A Birmingham fan gets ejected after fighting with his club’s own supporters in their 1-0 defeat against Watford on Saturday afternoon.

A photo and a video of the incident has surfaced, showing what happened in the Tilton end, with it reported he got into a scrap with a fellow fan.

Several police officers and stewards try get a hold of the older fan, who tried swinging for the copper then resisted arrest before being taken away.

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Emmanuel Dennis scored what ended up being the only goal of the game for Hornets to hand Tom Cleverley his first win as interim boss.

It was Cleverley’s first match in interim charge of Watford, coming away with all three points thanks to a hard-fought 1-0 win against strugglers Birmingham.

Emmanuel Dennis netted in the 44th-minute, after an error from the hosts, with the result meaning Watford steer further clear of the Championship drop zone, but leave Birmingham stuck in a battle to stay up.

Blues (4-2-3-1): John Ruddy, Ethan Laird (George Hall 83), Emanuel Aiwu, Lee Buchanan, Cody Drameh, Ivan Sunjic (Gary Gardner 83), Paik Seung-ho, Koji Miyoshi (Tyler Roberts 72), Juninho Bacuna, Jordan James (Lukas Jutkiewicz 72 (Scott Hogan 90+7), Jay Stansfield.

Substitutes not used: Neil Etheridge, Dion Sanderson, Andre Dozzell, Emmanuel Longelo.

Bookings: None.

Watford (4-2-3-1): Daniel Bachmann (captain), Ryan Andrews, Ryan Porteous, Mattie Pollock, James Morris, Edo Kayembe, Tom Dele-Bashiru, Yaser Asprilla (Francisco Sierralta 89), Giorgi Chakvetadze (Tom Ince 79), Ismael Kone (Matheus Martins 79), Emmanuel Dennis (Vakoun Bayo 63).

Substitutes not used: Ben Hamer, Jake Livermore, Mileta Rajovic, Albert Eames, Jack Grieves.

Bookings: Chakvetadze 68, Asprilla 88, Bachmann 90+4.

Referee: Matthew Donohue.

Attendance: 21,266.

Birmingham assistant manager Mark Venus said, per the club website: “We did everything we could to score but you give a soft goal away and you lose the game. I couldn’t protect the players on Tuesday, today I can protect them and they gave everything for the cause today.

“The players put everything out on the pitch today. Every player that went on the pitch today, the subs as well, everybody they gave everything. Their passion, their energy, their work rate was brilliant but again we came out on the wrong side of a result and we have to turn that around.

“Alex [Pritchard] has got a small calf strain that he did in training.

“Lukas [Jutikiewicz], he took a bang on the head and his knee sort of twisted a little bit. We are not sure about it, we are not sure whether it is a bad injury or just a bang on the knee, we will have to let it settle down. There is a bit of time between now and the next game to assess the injuries.”

Watford’s Tom Cleverley: “It’s exactly what the doctor ordered and it’s what I dreamt of last night. It wasn’t as perfect as it sounds, and we will address some of the problems we faced but I think if the players play with that much desire and heart to stop the ball going in our goal, and we know the quality our team possesses, there’s a bright future in us.

“I came to their game Tuesday and saw them in quite a flat way but today I thought they were excellent, so credit to us for winning the game.

“I can’t praise the back four enough, two academy products, and (Ryan) Porteous was the old head of the four and Dan (Bachmann) was called on a few times, a few more than I like and that’s my job to organise that better.

“The main thing today was the result and that back four deserves a big pat on the back.

“We know that (Emmanuel) Dennis has that explosive burst so as a defender you may think you are comfortable on the ball but then he appears from nowhere.

“We spoke to the players, we thought we’d create chances through high regains today and we didn’t win as many balls as we liked but the one that mattered went in.”