Nacional 0 – 0 Birmingham
Well, I managed to hear the whole match from my front room, thus saving myself over a thousand pounds.
Don’t get me wrong, though, listening to the match, it’s pretty damned obvious that those who paid through the nose to go see it (and those locals who would have seen it for next to nothing!) would have enjoyed the spectacle greatly. Sure, there were no goals, but the action was breathtaking.
The starting lineup got the forums (fora?) buzzing. A 4-1-4-1 lineup meant a bulk of defence and a single striker upfront (not overly surprising given the injury list). Scott Dann’s absence is a farce if you ask my opinion. If he was injured, he should have stayed home with Jordon Mutch. If he is simply not being risked, hence keeping his sale value, his seat on the plane should have gone to one of the academy, as an excellent experience for their development. As it was, Dann didn’t even appear on the bench, so I’d have to guess we loaded him onto the ‘plane to try to ‘force a big club’s hand’ “Make us an offer now or we’ll play him tonight, think we’re not serious? Look, here he is on his way to Madeira…”
Anyway, I digress a little. The fans who were there were amazingly vocal throughout. Sure, if we’d gone six nil down they may have quietened a bit, but I wouldn’t have put money on it.
We hammered the Nacional defence, making their ‘suspect’ keeper, look even more suspect! The BBC stats suggested at half time we were at about 67% possession. Last season, Alex McLeish (who I don’t want to discuss much further!) had us win the games we did manage to win with about 45% possession tops, so it illustrates perfectly how Chris Hughton’s style differs…
Anyway, their style of play seemed to be pretty much trying to disrupt ours. Our gameplan succeeded in that we stifled their attack, and kept an invaluable clean sheet, away from home (though it’s even more crucial to keep a clean sheet at home now!). They knocked our players about somewhat, and were fortunate only to pick up two yellow cards. Jean Beausejour (the BBC called him Joey Beausejour!) Carr and Ridgwell picked up yellows to make the picture seem rather unbalanced in their favour. Wood (twice) and Caldwell hit the woodwork, as we made ten attempts on goal. The final stat was 54% possession to Blues, so you can see we obviously invited them onto us a tad in the second half.
A lot was made of the altitude and temperature, yet it was Nacional who made 3 substitutions. We ended the match with the players who started. A pity for those left on the bench, but Chris Hughton knows what he’s doing…
Ratings:
- 01 Myhill 8, not troubled at all.
- 02 Carr 7, Captain reliable
- 03 Murphy 7 (Radio WM seemed to call him ‘Danny Murphy’) steady
- 04 Caldwell 8 Unlucky not to score
- 06 Ridgewell 8 put himself about
- 23 Spector 7 steady job for debut
- 24 Davies 9 MOTM solid as a rock at the back, and good going forward
- 07 Burke 7 put in another reliable performance
- 11 Beausejour 7 some great forays up the pitch, but allowed his temper to flare, Chile vs Brazil
- 22 Redmond 7 What a future this kid had. More than covered for his Academy mate Mutch’s absence
- 39 Wood 8 See Caldwell 😉
Chris Hughton: 9 genius. Would have been 10 had we scored.
Referee: 6 far too easy on some rough Nacional play
Crowd: 11. Wow.
It’s been fifty years since we were in Europe. We’re back!
Keep Right On, and We’re (still ) Going On a European Tour….
fantastic performance!
fantastic crowd!!
fantastic manager!
That is how you play one up front!!!
Great review, I managed to watch the game and you can definatley see that C. Hughton is desperate for us to play football in the correct manner. I commented on Birmingham City Official on FB that if Terry or Vidic had made that early tackle that Davies did they would be showing it every 5 minutes for the next week….IMO that tackle was the difference if Nacional had scored that early the game may have turned out completley different….KRO.
I may be speaking too early on this one , but Curtis Davis is fast showing that he is potentially more than just an ‘ intelligent ‘ centre back in my opinion. He actually performs timed tackles !… something that has basically disapeared from the game!
Let’s not get too excited yet , but he can also come forward and score a goal or two as well !
Cast your ( troubled ) minds back to our Premiership swansong at White Hart Lane , he was man of the match !……..
Johnson’s jumped ship , Dann’s got his Range Rover engine ticking over , waiting for the call , Davies is doing the business , alongside Caldwell ( Who certainly knows his way around ) you never know , a couple of goals and we might end up looking respectable ? .. Hughton’s played more ‘ Football ‘ already than the ‘Fortress St Andrews’ game killer !……..