After last Saturday's woeful performance I suppose everyone can appreciate the merits of the much-maligned Cory Evans and I doubt if we'll field such a youthful side for a good while without a couple of old hands to shore them up.
There's been a lot of talk about our fifteen year-old wonderkid Chris Rigg and he certainly looks a fantastic prospect but is he ready to get a first-team place? He's travelling with the squad today so even if he doesn't make a late appearance as a sub, his debut doesn't seem to be far off. Birmingham are currently lying tenth and they're unbeaten in their last four matches so it's going to be a tough one. We do seem to do better away from home and we're getting ominously close to the unfashionable end of the table so we really need a result. Match prediction: 1-1.
I didn’t get home till ten minutes before kick-off and when I got SAFSEE on, I immediately heard that major changes had been made again to our starting line-up with Hume, Huggins, Evans and Pritchard coming in. I knew he wasn’t far off but I was pleasantly surprised to see Huggins starting. Cirkin was nowhere to be seen and young Rigg wasn’t among the subs either. There was a well-observed two minutes silence for Remembrance Day and we kicked off finally at 8.05.
Five minutes in, we put together a great move that produced a cross from Neil that Amad connected with but his effort was blocked. We soon won a free-kick and Barnes and Benno joked that this might be the first free-kick this season that we’ll make count – it has to happen sometime. Pritchard hit the wall and his follow-up shot was held by Ruddy in goal. Next thing Birmingham won the first corner and it promptly led to a second but when Huggins headed it away, Deeney was there to head it back against the crossbar. It had been a lively first ten minutes with both sides having a go. Wright was down injured for a couple of minutes and in the silence I could hear our fans singing. Bailey thankfully managed to recover but there’d been quite a gap in play and clearly there’d be a fair bit of stoppage-time. Clarke fouled Bacuna but escaped without a card when one sounded likely.
The game had lost its zest after that stoppage but it suddenly gained lot more when Amad fed Simms in the twenty-fifth minute and he shot into the bottom-left corner to put us in the lead. Soon we had another free-kick after the ominous-sounding Hannibal was booked for a foul on Clarke but Pritchard’s kick went inches wide of the post. Not long afterwards Hannibal gave Neil a good shove but escaped with a talking to from referee Andy Madley. Pritchard got a ticking off too for good measure. Patterson made a great save from a Hogan lob about five minutes from the break and that was their best effort so far. It took me almost till half-time to twig that their defender Sanderson was the same one who’d played so well for us on loan a season or two back. I knew that name was familiar. Huggins was booked for a foul on Hannibal as Birmingham put a good deal of pressure on. There were three minutes of stoppage-time and it remained 0-1 as the whistle went. So far, so much better than last time out.
As we kicked off again I remained confident about us getting at least a draw as we’d been much tighter than last Saturday. I didn’t like the sound of Deeney so we’d have to keep a close eye on him. Benno and Barnesy had just been singing the praises of Amad when in the forty-ninth minute he was fed by Neil and curled a great shot into the net to put us 2-0 up. He’s been a great acquisition. “Sing yer hearts out for the Lads” was coming across loud and clear.
There was another gap of a few minutes when Hogan was down injured after a clash with Clarke and then Birmingham made a triple substitution which involved Hannibal going off. Our subs started to warm up and we had a decent bench that included Embleton and Roberts. Amad was down injured too after a collision with Bacuna and there hadn’t been much football for a while. Birmingham won their fourth corner but we cleared it and with around twenty-five minutes to go things were looking good. Amad was replaced by Roberts following his earlier injury so let’s hope it’s nothing serious.
Twenty minutes to go and there were some strong challenges going in from both sides, which resulted in Evans being yellow-carded. The Brum fans were howling for a penalty but the assistant referee had flagged for offside. Wright miskicked in our box and Jutkiewicz buried the ball into the bottom right-hand corner to set up a nervy final twelve minutes. There was bound to be around five minutes of stoppage-time too. Sanderson hit the post with about five minutes to go (BBC Sport said Hume blocked it) and then Embleton and Matete came on for Pritchard and Simms.
Matete was booked after a very short while for kicking the ball away. Birmingham were doing most of the pressing and I had to get up and pace around as we entered the last minute. Seven minutes of stoppage-time were announced and Tony Mowbray was clearly not pleased with that as he pursued the fourth official. We won a corner, our first I think, and promptly won another and another. That suited me and we were down to three minutes on the clock. Chong went down in our box but the ref wasn’t having it and Birmingham won a very late corner for which goalkeeper Ruddy came up. Clarke was booked as he raced towards an open goal in Ruddy’s absence so it was all going on until that whistle was finally blown and we’d won.
This was a fine battling win and a great way to finish before the World Cup break. We’re up to twelfth spot, for a while anyway.
