Birmingham City seem as unhappy as we do about the change in our Worthington Cup Semi-Final match at St. Andrews. Speaking on the official Birmingham City Website (www.bcfc.com) Karren Brady, the City Managing Director said the change was "both unreasonable and unfair".

She continued: "The game date has been set for five weeks and the majority of tickets have been sold.

"We understand that the decision made by the Football League was following a letter they received from the West Midlands Police. Since the date was first set we have been selling tickets and all parties were aware that Aston Villa had a game scheduled for the same evening.

"We believe that it is insult to the teams involved (Blues v Ipswich and Aston Villa v Leeds) to suggest that the entire West Midlands Police Force cannot cope with a total of 5,000 travelling Ipswich and Leeds fans and a total of less than 60,000 supporters visiting the two stadiums across the City. The Greater Manchester Police handles over 60,000 supporters every week at Old Trafford and the Metropolitan Police handled 100,000 mixed supporters at Wembley on a regular basis.

"It is interesting to note that the Premier League have not asked Aston Villa to move their game and this shows to me that the Premier League have the power to support their club, unlike the Football League who have let us down at the last minute. A Premier League fixture takes precedence over the Semi Final of the League cup - this only emphasises to us the urgency to get into the Premier League.

"It appears that we have no choice but to accept this last minute change that has been forced upon us and is entirely against our wish. I can only apologise to all supporters and sponsors involved."

Don't forget to let us know what you think of the date change by adding your comments to our Town Topics page (www.twtd.co.uk/towntopics).

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