This season Birmingham City are fighting to avoid relegation to League One. Ten years ago, they won a cup final at Wembley
By Sean Cole for The Blizzard
By most conventional measures, Obafemi Martins’s loan spell with Birmingham City could not be deemed a success. Recruited in January 2011 to score the goals that would keep the club in the Premier League, he only found the net twice and his season was cut short by injury when he was needed most. The club was relegated in his absence. Yet something remarkable, and unexpected, happened in his fourth appearance.
A late substitute in the League Cup final, Martins had only been on the pitch for six minutes when a moment of confusion between Laurent Koscielny and Wojciech Szczesny led the ball spilling at his feet with the goal gaping. He couldn’t miss and Arsenal had no time to recover. In the strangest of circumstances, the Nigerian striker marked his temporary stay at Birmingham City with perhaps the most significant goal in the club’s history. His simple finish secured a 2-1 win and only the second major trophy for a club that had been founded in 1875.
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