View from the South – Birmingham City v Yeovil Town

Quite a few things happened early on Saturday morning. It had been raining again but faint hearts don’t get Welsh Terriers walked and Welsh Terriers accept no excuses especially at weekends when my little girl, Dilys somehow seems to know that I haven’t got to go to work. We set off into the twilight dawn, cool from the damp atmosphere and whilst going past a hedgerow I spotted a Santander credit card under the hedge. It was new and obviously dropped accidentally. I put it in my pocket and finished the dog’s exercise. On the way back our local postie was out delivering the mail and I showed the card to him and he suggested that the owner lived just up the road. I enquired at the house he had directed me to and sure enough a grateful owner was reunited with his property. So having been able to do someone a good turn I turned and saw two magpies on a rooftop opposite; another good omen so perhaps a good day for Blues? I got back home and readied myself for the journey north to Birmingham. My local station was subject to engineering works and I would have to go on a bus to Reading if I went my usual way but this meant an extra 45 minutes journey time which I didn’t fancy so I got Mrs Bazza to drop me off at Farnborough Main station from where I caught a train to Basingstoke to pick up the Manchester train to Coventry where Chris would pick me up. I met a group of Bolton fans at Farnborough on their way to Reading for their game. They appear to be in a similar financial position to us in having little or no money to strengthen their squad, reduced average gates at the Reebok and subdued atmosphere so we were able to commiserate together and reminisce about happier times. I was able to tell them to get into the Three Guineas at Reading and I wished them well and said goodbye when the train alighted at their stop. I arrived at Coventry at about 13.20 and Chris, little Jack and I proceeded down the A45 to the ground. As is our routine, it was into the Royal George for a couple of scoops and then into the ground.

I am not sure how to describe this match. It is very easy to get all negative and maudlin and say that we were poor and we should have done this and that and that Zigic was awful and that Mullins was rubbish giving away the first goal and that Yeovil are as poor as creases and it just shows how shocking we are yadda yadda yadda. I don’t agree; Blues played OK for the most part especially in the first half but we didn’t have the run of the ball when it mattered. It is true to say that when we did have to defend we were absolutely shambolic. Blues could have conceded in the first thirty seconds and only a last ditch tackle by Mullins on James Hayter prevented the match getting off to an even worse start. However, the makeshift defender gifted the same player a goal on 12 minutes with a shocking attempt at a back pass and the striker cooly lobbed the stranded Randolph. Things then got worse as a well worked move down the left was crossed in for an excellent header across Randolph that the keeper could do nothing about. I felt Robinson should have done better marking the goalscorer Hayter and the cross came in too easily but it was a cracking goal and frankly Yeovil deserved their lead.

Blues needed a quick response and nearly got one when debutant Howard drove into the area and hung up a cross for Novak only for his header to come back off the bar. Blues then dominated possession from then on and rained shots down on Yeovil’s goal but Marek Stech saved everything that came at him and some of his stops were notable. Along with his giant defenders he prevented Blues getting back into the game at critical times in this match. I am convinced that had Birmingham managed to score one goal the likelihood was that they would have scored a second and who knows more but Yeovil defended manfully and in the end thoroughly deserved their win. They could have had a third just before the break when Moore latched onto a hoofed clearance down the middle. Robinson put in a last ditch tackle that I am bound to say looked awfully close to being a penalty but Blues escaped. Joel Grant seized on the rebound but was blocked by Randolph who then grasped the ball at the third attempt with Yeovil forwards rushing in; very lucky it wasn’t 3-0 in a half Blues had dominated!

Blues needed an early breakthrough and it never came. We were completely toothless up front with Zigic having a poor game but not all the blame should be laid at his door. There is no point in continually hoofing the ball up to the big man’s head from miles back when the defensive unit against him is the land of the giants! Clueless tactics like this played into the hands of a functional and limited team like Yeovil who despite their shortcomings are perfectly capable of carrying out the basics of tackling, heading and clearing their lines against a team playing in front of them. They had a 2-0 lead for heavens sake and of course they were going to put nine men in front of the ball and make things cussedly awkward which they did. Blues failed to move their big lumbering defenders around enough and failed to get behind them often enough. When we did on 68 minutes and Chris Burke crossed hard and low to Howard inside the six yard box, his crisp shot was brilliantly saved by Stech who was having the game of his life. It was clear that it was not to be our day. It could have been so much worse had Yeovil converted all the chances they had; Hayter seized on a mistake by Hancox and Robinson who got in each other’s way down the left. Hayter’s final ball to Ralls in splendid isolation in the middle was overcooked and the chance to add to our miserable humiliation was lost. Zigic’s melancholy afternoon was brought to an end when he was substituted half way through the half to loud cheers which I don’t hold with I’m afraid however poor a game he may have had; as alluded to earlier, the service up to him was abysmal. The faithful’s patience was finally exhausted when Reece Brown, one of the bright stories for Blues was also substituted to a cacophony of boos. To add insult to injury, Blues were denied a consolation in time added on when Wade Elliott’s effort was diverted over the bar by a last ditch sliding challenge that epitomised Yeovil’s full bloodied defensive display all afternoon.

Blues were simply not good enough to break Yeovil down once they were ahead because we are not a good enough team with the personnel that we have. Having said that Blues mustered 25 shots on goal and enjoyed 67% of the possession. This smash and grab raid followed a similar pattern to the mugging of Bournemouth that we inflicted on them down on the south coast so what goes around comes around I suppose. The Yeovil fans had a fun day and probably came away with far more than they expected and who can begrudge them after the wretched season they have had so far. They were singing “we are staying up” near the end but sadly I think they are probably mistaken. I see Yeovil as one of the sides for the drop as on another day they would concede at least two goals not be gifted an opener and leave with nothing. Most teams in the Championship will not be as generous as we were in this game. As a postscript, unless we defend better and learn to take our chances, we will be joining them!

The Good: The debut performance of Brian Howard whom I felt was one of our best players if not the best on the day. I am not sure I agree that young Reece Brown was our man of the match. Whilst he made space for himself and tried to make a difference I thought the game passed him by at times but make no mistake there is more to come and I look forward to watching his future development with interest!

The Bad: Giving away a two goal lead; any team even one as limited as Yeovil will gleefully accept such profligacy and then make life difficult. All they had to do was defend properly, ride their luck and the chances were they were going to take all three points. They did and deservedly left St Andrews with all the spoils; the darkness continues but as I keep saying, we will emerge into the light eventually. Keep the faith fellow noses.

The Ugly: Yeovil’s away kit! I’m still suffering from rhodopsin blindness! Things could always be worse; I saw the result that my friends from Bolton had to endure at Reading, 7-1 OUCH!!!!

Birmingham City: Darren Randolph 7, Paul Caddis 7, Hayden Mullins 5, Paul Robinson 6, Mitch Hancox 7, Chris Burke 7, Olly Lee 6, Brian Howard 8 (Andrew Shinnie 79, 6) Reece Brown 7 (Wade Elliott 68, 6) Lee Novak 5 Nikola Zigic 5 (Ferguson 61, 6)

Subs not used: Colin Doyle, Will Packwood, Demerai Gray, Callum Reilly.

Bookings: None

Yeovil Town: Marek Stech 9, Luke Ayling 7, Joe Edwards 7, Byron Webster 7, Kieffer Moore 7, Shane Duffy 6, Joe Ralls 6, Joel Grant 7, Zoumana Bakayogo 6 (Jamie McAllister 37, 6 (Matteo Lanzoni 53, 6)) James Hayter 8.

Subs not used: Ed Upson, Sam Foley, Chris Dunn, Adam Morgan.

Goals: Hayter 12, 19.

Bookings: Joe Ralls 23 minutes foul.

Referee: Frederick Graham 5: Distinctly below average all afternoon; in keeping with the majority of officials in this league.

Attendance 13,605

Bazza KRO SOTV