A former referee has recalled his experience officiating at a raucous St Andrew’s on a night when Birmingham City beat rivals Aston Villa
Former referee Chris Foy
Former referee Chris Foy says the atmosphere was so electric at St Andrew’s during Birmingham City’s League Cup quarter-final victory over Aston Villa that he had to soak it in from his changing room.
Nikola Zigic scored late to hand Blues a 2-1 win on the way to their 2011 cup triumph and sent St Andrew’s into delirium.
The small matter of it being Villa who Blues had dumped out in the last-eight added to a scintillating atmosphere inside the stadium and Foy couldn’t help but enjoy it from the safety of the changing room.
Speaking on the Men In Black Podcast, Foy was asked to name the most explosive derby match he was involved in and said: “I’ve refereed some incredible football matches, lots of London derbies, some Manchester derbies, some really tough rivalries. Man United-Leeds in the FA Cup was incredible.
“But it was a quarter-final in the League Cup and it was Birmingham City against Aston Villa at St Andrew’s.
“My goodness me, what an evening that was. Just getting to the ground you could feel it. The crowd were very close to the pitch, the place was full to the rafters and the atmosphere was unbelievable. It was just non-stop.
“After the game, everything had gone well for us, we’d officiated the game and there were no controversies, but I just sat in the changing room and didn’t get changed. It was just so noisy.
“The atmosphere was just incredible. By the time we’d got changed, had a shower, got suited and booted and wanted to leave the ground, we couldn’t because it was just chaos outside.”
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