Birmingham through to League Cup final

London: Birmingham rallied to beat West Ham 3-1 after extra time Wednesday and set up a meeting with

Arsenal in the League Cup final, while Liverpool climbed to seventh in the Premier League by edging past Fulham 1-0. Craig Gardner was the match winner for Birmingham in a dramatic semifinal second leg at St. Andrew`s, firing home from 25 yards in the fourth minute of extra time to earn the Midlands club a 4-3 aggregate win and a trip to Wembley. "It`s unbelievable, you dream of these things," Gardner said. "I was saying to my mates I wanted to get the winner to take us there and to do it was unbelievable." Carlton Cole scored a stunning goal in the 31st to put West Ham 3-1 up in the two-legged series but Birmingham took the game into extra time thanks to second-half goals by Lee Bowyer and Roger Johnson. The Blues, whose only major trophy came when they won the League Cup in 1963, will be underdogs when they play Arsenal on Feb. 27. Arsenal qualified for the final by beating second-tier side Ipswich 3-0 in the second leg of their semifinal, winning 3-1 on aggregate. Birmingham was comfortably second best in the first half against fellow Premier League struggler West Ham and looked out of the competition at halftime. The Hammers` superb run of results in the League Cup _ England`s second-tier club knockout competition behind the FA Cup _ has helped keep manager Avram Grant in a job this season. The London club took a deserved lead into the second leg and Cole, the striker who scored the winner at Upton Park two weeks ago, extended the advantage when he latched on to Wayne Bridge`s throw-in and curled a dipping 25-yard shot into the far corner. It was a different Birmingham after the break, with giant Serbia striker Nikola Zigic causing all sorts of problems after being thrown on by manager Alex McLeish for the second half. "I said to the players at halftime that, to all intents and purposes, we were out of the cup," McLeish said. "I had to make the change and have an instant impact. Zigic made the difference." Gardner, the team`s leading scorer this season, struck the post with a low, left-foot shot in the 53rd before Bowyer equalized six minutes later when he pounced on a loose ball following a corner and arrowed a powerful half-volley into the top corner. After piling the pressure on for the next 20 minutes, Birmingham leveled the match on aggregate when Johnson rose to meet Bowyer`s corner, heading the ball into the ground and past goalkeeper Robert Green. Cameron Jerome squandered a one-on-one chance by shooting straight at Green in the 80th and Gardner crashed a fierce drive onto the post with 20 seconds remaining of the three minutes of stoppage time. The match went to extra time and with almost a carbon copy of his previous shot, Gardner skimmed a stunning low drive into the corner from 30 yards for what proved to be the winning goal. "It was third time lucky _ it was a tremendous goal," McLeish said. A 53rd-minute own goal by Ghana defender John Pantsil gave Liverpool a narrow win at Anfield to maintain the team`s resurgence under new manager Kenny Dalglish. The Reds are now unbeaten in their last three games under Dalglish, who took over for a second spell in charge of the club on Jan. 9 following the firing of Roy Hodgson, the former Fulham manager. "It`s getting a bit more realistic but we aren`t getting carried away with being seventh _ that isn`t where this football club wants to be," said Dalglish, who inherited a team which struggled for results in the first half of the season. "We want to be further up than that." The unfortunate Pantsil sliced a clearance into his own net following a goalmouth scramble to gift Liverpool the win, although Fulham rallied strongly in the second half. Brede Hangeland saw his header cleared off the line by Liverpool midfielder Raul Meireles, while Aaron Hughes and Moussa Dembele had efforts saved by goalkeeper Jose Reina. "I think Fulham will be feeling a little hard done by because they will think they deserved something from the game," Dalglish said. Liverpool striker Fernando Torres had a goal harshly ruled out for offside in the first half. The three points lifted Liverpool five places in the table. Fulham remained 15th. Bureau Report