Saturday Morning
It’s looking pretty gloomy outside here in London W10 but it’s sunny in my football heart as I anticipate the trip up to St Andrew’s. We’re on a roll and Birmingham are on a bad run so optimism keeps bubbling up and I do fancy us for at least a draw but I’ve never been to St Andrew’s before and apparently it can be an intimidating place for away teams. I doubt if they’ll intimidate Cana, more the other way round, but it remains to be seen just how much Cattermole’s loss will affect us. If Henderson plays, as seems likely at this point, I’ll be happy as he’s looked great to me so far.

Getting There
I chomped a couple of large vegetable samosas on the way to Marylebone Station and caught the 11.20 train up to Birmingham Moor Street. There was no sign of any of the rest of the tribe until I emerged from the station but I was pleased to see the sky was starting to show itself between the clouds, though unfortunately it was in Birmingham’s colours. I walked to the ground with the help of a friendly Pakistani taxi-driver, who told me I was heading the wrong way, and got in and upstairs in the bar with a pint of Fosters in my hand by 2.10. I noticed they were advertising foot-long sausages in a bun with chips for £6.10 but could see nobody attempting one. There was a lad sporting an Athletic Bilbao shirt and he certainly looked Iberian. I was pleased to see him there and I think it’s about time we got a friendly together with them to celebrate our part in setting their club up. My seat was in a perfect spot in the middle of our end and right behind the goal while our lot had about two thirds of the end. There was a nifty little band playing before the start called Steel and Strings and they played three numbers with the steel drums well to the fore, including of course ‘Mr Blue Skies’ by local boys ELO. The announcer, who sounded like he was about to have a seizure, informed the locals that the discount during the club happy hour after the match would increase according to how many goals Birmingham won by. The new Birmingham chairman came on and made a speech which he finished somewhat unconvincingly by saying, “I love you all.” Manufacturers of beach balls had clearly been having a good week and there were a number of them flying around but the stewards must have had special instructions because they were very keen to catch them and cart them off, to much booing.

The Match
There were no surprises in our line-up with Richardson back in defence and Henderson on for Catts. Kevin Phillips got several good ripples from our end, and a decent chant later on when he warmed up down the running track. We started off okay, forcing a couple of corners in the first few minutes but then things started to get wobbly and didn’t really stop. I was surprised that Turner made a couple of really bad mistakes in our box early on but, credit to him, he recovered and started playing well. We just weren’t developing much flowing play and there were lots of balls kicked and nodded into the air and going nowhere. Birmingham started to create a number of decent chances and if Benitez a.k.a. Chuchu and Jerome had been better finishers we could have been two or three down with a good while to go to half-time. Just after the half-hour mark Turner managed to boot the ball out of the ground, which of course was a good excuse for another chorus of ‘My Garden Shed’ and soon afterwards a steward who strongly over kicked the ball back to Gordon received a hearty round of “You Fat Bastard.” However, the levity was soon dissipated by them taking the lead. We conceded a free-kick just outside the box and Ridgewell ran forward from the line to head it in. This was the cue for the Birmingham fans, with their thoroughly unmerited reputation for passion and hostility, to wake up and start cheering their team. We had our best rally of the half with a few minutes to go with four or five attempts in a row being blocked but suddenly the ball was cleared to the other end and Gordon had to save the day by running from his box and booting it clear. So, 1-0 at the break and I couldn’t argue with that but I hoped we’d manage some fluency in the second-half.

There’d been no changes at the restart and we began well but that soon passed when following a good move down their right and a cross that was cleverly flicked on by Jerome, I think, McFadden turned our defence inside out and slotted it wide of Gordon. Reid was playing a stormer and we fought back but our finishing was lousy. Half way through the half a great fingertip save from Gordon kept us in the game and a minute later we made three substitutions with Campbell, McCartney and Zenden coming on for Malbranque (he’d had a bit of a stinker), Henderson (ditto) and surprisingly Cana (presumably injured). Finally we began to make a match of it and if our finishing had been better, Zenden’s in particular was appalling, we could even have won it. With just less than ten minutes on the clock we pulled one back and of course Reid was involved. His free-kick was headed goalwards by Turner and defender Dann helped it on its way. Our fans were giving great support as we produced attack after attack but two good efforts from Campbell and one by Bent went just wide. There were four minutes of added time and I felt we could just squeeze another goal but it wasn’t to be and the game ended with Gordon being penalized for handling outside of his area and Birmingham wisely steering the free-kick towards our corner flag and keeping it there till the whistle blew.

We didn’t deserve much from this game and the late rally put some much-needed gloss on a very ineffective performance. Our defence again looked horribly shaky at times with Bardo being easily turned on several occasions and Cattermole’s absence was noticeable while Kenwyne too looked sluggish compared to usual. Anyway, see you at the Villa game.

ALS Books click here