Sorry this is late, it’s been a busy morning! Here is Baz’s take on Saturday.
This was an earlier start for this trip. I don’t tend to do the northern excursions as a rule not because I don’t want to but the sheer logistics mean that however I travel it wipes out most of the weekend. It was for this reason that Will gave this one a miss and he is being the dutiful father with a wife, new baby and two year old little girl to consider – it’s a phase he’s going through! 😀
Jonny and I drove up to meet Chris in Baginton before moving on from there. A lovely day greeted us and there were no dramas on the journey up. We set off about 11.45 for the rest of the trip to Manchester. As is the case with new stadiums, there were ample places to park and we went in search of a pub. There weren’t any that away fans could use so we grabbed a chicken balti pasty each and headed into the ground for a pint there. As we entered the turnstile and turned right we saw a bar and Chris strode up to the girl behind the counter and ordered the first round. “It’s only bottles” Chris said and they appeared to be only half pints. Having had them poured the bill came to an eye-watering £7.00 a pint! It was then that we saw it; the next bar along was selling draft at £3.80 a pint; still a bit pricey but more like it. Chris was looking decidedly sheepish at this point especially as I was going to tell noses everywhere!
The line ups were announced on the flash screens in the bar area and it appeared that we were going 4-4-2 with Zigic and Jerome up front and Fahey brought in, in place of Beausejour. Otherwise the team read very much as most would expect with Foster in goal, Carr, Johnson, Dann and Ridgewell across the back with Larsson, Ferguson, Gardner and Fahey in midfield. Chris rang his stay away brother who argued the toss saying that was not what they were saying on the radio! He said that Hleb was playing in a different formation. Chris said, “But they’ve just flashed the teams up on the stadium monitors!” “Well it ain’t wot they’re sayin’ on the ray-diow” insisted Will. Chris just rolled his eyes and agreed with him and rang off. “I’ve learned better to than to argue with Will when he thinks he knows best!” said Chris with a grin.
As for the game there isn’t a lot to tell to be honest and the match was every bit as drab as our greatest fans on MotD suggested it was. I bet Manchester City aren’t used to being up last or last but one on that programme! However, there was a lot to be upbeat and positive about with this Blues performance. I said in my last report that our players could not afford to wander about like young girl’s dreams for an hour before waking up for thirty minutes up and at it. I’m glad to be able to say that Blues were focused from the off and although there wasn’t anything to report by way of excitement, we were solid, well organised and kept the frustrated home side playing in front of us. They never really opened us up and the class of Tevez, Johnson and Silva was remarkably easily stifled.
Only twice did they look like scoring, when Tevez had a ‘goal’ ruled out for hand-ball after 40 minutes when Yaya Toure headed a cross back across goal. Tevez got across in front of Johnson and bundled the ball in and to be honest, I couldn’t see a lot wrong at first. Then looking across, the assistant referee had his flag raised which at first I thought was signaling the goal but he was standing his ground as it became clear he was signaling some form of infringement. This turned out to be hand ball and a booking followed for Tevez’s protests. He was in any event offside leading up to the incident so it was no goal on two counts. The replay clearly shows the hand ball which was a good spot by the linesman.
The only other chance for the home side came right at the start of the second half when Steven Carr spectacularly cleared off the line from James Milner following an initial save from Foster. We were very lucky to survive this. I am certain that Alex McLeish will have told the players to keep things tight and concentrate hard especially for the first few minutes of the half. It just goes to show that expensively assembled football players just don’t listen. There was another incident when Blues nearly spoiled all the hard work when a simply dreadful back pass was played right into the feet of Tevez. The little maestro fortunately fluffed his lines and sent a mis-hit left footed shot across Foster but well wide to safety.
The natives were getting restless and their grumbles became a cacophony of boos when Mancini made his final change after 83 minutes, taking off Tevez for Gareth Barry. Tevez to be fair had had a tepid performance for him and apparently was carrying an injury from a couple of weeks before. Blues had earlier brought on Hleb for Zigic on 65 minutes and this had given us more play than the home dug out would, I’m sure, have liked. Birmingham had looked their most threatening in this period and this may have had some bearing on their change. I was surprised to see that Manchester City had had 21 attempts on goal with 11 on target but it didn’t seem that way watching the game I have to say.
De Jong did have a fine strike well caught by Foster that was heading towards the top corner after arguably the home side’s best move of the match but the others must have been weak or scuffed efforts because none really linger in the memory. Blues did not produce many chances and Fahey’s sweetly hit volley was competently saved by Joe Hart at the foot of the post half way through the second half. That, as the story goes was ‘all she ‘wrote’ as the game ended to more boos from the home supporters. This turned out to be a remarkably easily gathered point although the hard work that went into it has to be commended.
We got lost on the way home and had to rely on Chris’ ‘sense of direction’ which entailed driving round in circles until we found a sign with a name of a place on it that we vaguely recognised as being somewhere between Manchester and where we wanted to go! I knew we should have brought the Sat Nav!
We all decided we were pleased with the point gained at a difficult place where to be honest I had expected to get comfortably turned over. It was a little deflating to hear that Wigan had scraped another win and Stoke easily beat a very average Liverpool to put us into the bottom three for the first time this season. We have drawn seven of our 13 game so far this term and won two.
This in effect means that we are taking something from 70% of our matches at the moment. This was a good solid performance for a deserved share of the spoils. What we have not had in some of our games is our fair share of fortune and it has to be assumed that sooner or later that will change. It is far too early to panic but a couple of wins especially at home are long overdue. If we play with the commitment shown yesterday Blues will be OK.
The Good: The company, the solid performance and the look on Chris’ face when he realised he’d paid well over the odds for the first round! 😀
The Bad: Not a lot to be fair but the game was a drab affair but it would have looked a whole lot worse had the hand ball not been spotted and we had conceded from the lapse of concentration 30 seconds into the second half.
The Ugly: The car park attendant who had a single tooth and a face like a bag of spanners!
Manchester City: (4-2-3-1):
Hart 7; Boateng 7, K Toure 8 , Kompany 8, Kolarov 6 (Zabaleta 81min, 6); De Jong 8, Y Toure 7, Johnson 6, Silva 7, Milner 6 (Santa Cruz 66, 5); Tevez 6 (Barry 83, 6). Subs (not used): Given, Richards, Vieira, Jo. Booked: Tevez, De Jong.
Birmingham City (4-4-2):
Foster 7; Carr 8, Dann 8, Johnson 8, Ridgewell 8; Larsson 7, Gardner 6 (Bowyer 49, 7), Ferguson 7, Fahey 8; Zigic 7 (Hleb 65, 7), Jerome 6. Subs (not used): Doyle, Phillips, Derbyshire, Parnaby, Beausejour.
Referee: M Jones (Cheshire) 8:
The referee and his assistants had a good game. They were hardly noticed which is always a good sign and they got the key decision right. The only possible blemish was a penalty shout for Blues in the first half. Ridgewell was clipped accidentally in the box in the first half by Adam Johnson I think.
Arguably this should have been awarded as it is possible to foul someone even if it is unintentional. One of those where people say, ‘I’ve seen ‘em given!’ There weren’t too many protests to be fair.
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