View from the South – Birmingham City v Brighton & Hove Albion

Just before the season started Will called up and asked if I was excited about the start of the campaign? I remember mumbling something about looking forward to it but to be honest for the first time in years I hadn’t got the same buzz as previous seasons. Listening to the game at Middlesborough last Saturday when we didn’t muster a single shot on target and lost pretty meekly by all accounts it hadn’t done much to lift the feelings I had about it. Last season had been so awful especially at St Andrews that this time round I have absolutely no expectations about Blues whatsoever. I’d like to think that we will win more than two games at home this season but I still wouldn’t bet my mortgage on it! However, something happened last weekend that has subdued me more than anything.

Those of you that follow my reports on games will know that I tend to be a creature of habit and as part of the routine on a Saturday morning; I walk my little Welsh Terrier, Dilys early doors before setting off on my journey north to Birmingham. Sadly, this was not possible this week since last Sunday Dilys died at the ripe old age of 14; it has been a tough week. The late Bill Shankly once said “there are some people that think football is a matter of life and death. I’d like to disavow them of that belief, it’s far more important than that!” Of course the great man was being amusingly ironical and some think earnest but it is my steadfast belief that his remarks were said with more than a little tongue in cheek. I certainly know what I think.

Will picked me up from home at about 11.30 and in the company of Jordan, a Brighton fan we cut across country joining the M40 at Wycombe. We made good time and decided to grab some food at The Crown, Alcester Lanes End in Kings Heath. We shared a couple of platter starter dishes to keep the wolves at bay and I for one partook of a couple of pints. The game on the TV really cheered me up; it was Leeds v Middlesborough and I had the thought that our game could not possibly be as bad as the fare being dished up by these two combatants! It was 0-0 when we left on 85 minutes and we heard on the radio that Leeds sneaked it 1-0. It was still an awful match. It remained to be seen whether our game would reach such heady heights of excitement! On the final leg of our journey, we were listening to the Manchester United – Swansea game as the Welsh club took a 2-1 lead. The comment “Rooney is asking Tyler Blackett (remember him?) what the hell happened there?” made Will and I smile.

We called by the shop to get this year’s home strip and then went into the ground. I’ve changed the area of the Kop where we all sit this season so that we can all sit together. It’s higher up the terracing and level with the 18 yard line at the Gil Merrick end so a different look and hopefully a change of fortunes as a result. This summer has seen a lot of new players drafted in and thus a very new fresh looking side took to the field. I detected an apprehensiveness among the 15,000 or so crowd hoping rather than expecting that we would not have to endure the agonies of watching Blues at home of last season. Seven of the starting line-up had no experience of that nightmare and Blues set up 4-4-2 with Randolph between the sticks Spector at right back, Grounds on the left with Edgar and Hall occupying the central defensive berths. The midfield consisted of Cotterill, Davis, Caddis, captaining the side as Robinson was on the bench and Novak was placed out left. Wes Thomas and Clayton Donaldson formed the two man strike force.

Blues started brightly enough and passed the ball about reasonably well without really disturbing the Brighton rearguard too much in the early exchanges and David Stockdale in the visiting goal was hardly diving around stopping shots and punching dangerous crosses clear with last ditch deeds of derring do. It was half an hour before Blues actually got a shot off in anger and wags in the crowd near us started counting the efforts. Three efforts happened in a flurry with Spector working the keeper with a shot from the right that almost fell for Novak but a defender just beat him to it to clear. In the 28th minute Thomas missed a good chance at the near post when he completely missed his header from a cross from Clayton Donaldson following good work from Caddis to put the pacy forward into to the by-line.

Brighton for their part didn’t really threaten Blues all that much and most of their play was kept in front of our defence. Darren Randolph’s first notable save came in the final minute of the first half when Chris O’Grady attempted to bend a low shot into the corner around one of our defenders but Randolph got his body well behind the ball, the whistle blew right on time and that was that for the first period.

I was glad to see the outstanding Food Kitchen has been continued for this season and some sausage and mustard mash with onions went down a treat with a nice cuppa. The first half had been pretty uninspiring to be honest but at least we looked better than last season, certainly from the defensive point of view and at least we didn’t look as if we were going to conceded goals in clusters like we did last season. I was hoping for a bit more going forward however and we didn’t have to wait log into the second half. Blues found themselves one up after 49 minutes. A Brighton attack broke down in our area. Craig Mackail-Smith ran into Grant Hall and rebounded off him. He farcically appealed for a penalty but the referee told him to get up and stop trying it on. It didn’t stop the Scottish striker from bleating about it long and loud for minutes afterwards however and some officials would undoubtedly have lost patience with him. Thankfully the man in the middle kept his cards in his pocket and kept the game moving.

From the breakdown, the ball was moved rapidly forward and worked out to the right where Cotterill touched the ball forward to find the half a yard he needed to deliver a lovely cross to the unmarked Thomas who had got between two defenders. The result was a free header eight yards out right in front of goal. A professional centre-forward at this level has to hit the target from such a position and fortunately Thomas did not fluff his lines and the ball was dispatched past Stockdale into the top corner of the Tilton Road net to the delight and I suspect relief of the watching faithful.

The old saying goes that you are at your most vulnerable when you have just scored and Blues almost paid for switching off a couple of minutes later when the ball broke to O’Grady in the middle of the area, fifteen yards out and he looked odds on to score. Spector saved the day with a beautifully timed tackle to prevent the Brighton man making it 1-1 and took a hefty knock for his pains in the process. Thankfully he was able to continue after treatment. Blues started to give away one or two silly free kicks and one in the 63rd minute saw Randolph tip over a free-kick from Jake Forster-Caskey that was flying into the top of the net but for Randolph’s intervention.

There was clearly a steely determination from Blues not to relinquish the hard fought for lead and despite injuries to David Davis and Lee Novak which forced changes to be made in personnel and formation, Blues held out. Towards the end, Blues went five at the back to protect the lead. Robinson came on and went into the heart of defence, Stephen Gleeson came on into midfield Edgar moved forward to join him, Caddis went wide right and Cotterill wide left. However, it was not a case of all hands to the pumps; Blues carried on probing forwards and continued as a threat and so nearly put the game to bed when Cotterill bent a peach of a free kick just wide of Stockdale’s right had post. It looked in from where we were sitting and certainly Stockdale was never getting there had it been inside rather than outside the upright. The keeper then butterfingered another fierce drive from Cotterill and was very lucky that it evaded the feet of Donaldson lurking just in front of him.

Finally a nervous four minutes of stoppage time was completed and Blues had their first home victory since October 1st 2013; a deserved one at that. I don’t know what has happened to the slick flowing football that Brighton have been noted for these past couple of seasons but they are going to have a long season playing like this. Frankly they weren’t great; a sentiment shared by Seagulls supporter Jordan. For our part I don’t see us pulling up trees this season either but it looks a vast improvement on last campaign but there again that wouldn’t be difficult would it?

The Good: The win for the first time in nearly a year.
The Bad: The defending from Brighton for the goal.
The Ugly: Nothing really of note. Some cynics might say the game itself but sometimes teams have to win ugly and I guess you could argue Blues did just that but I didn’t think the game was bad enough to deserve such a negative label.

Birmingham City (4-4-2): Darren Randolph 6, Jonathan Spector 8, Jonathan Grounds 7, Grant Hall 7, David Edgar 7, David Cotterill 6, David Davis 7 (Stephen Gleeson 68, 6), Paul Caddis 8, Lee Novak 6 (Paul Robinson 77, 7), Clayton Donaldson 7, Wesley Thomas 6 (Reece Brown 90+1, N/A).
Not used: Colin Doyle, Demarai Gray, Mark Duffy, Denny Johnstone.

Brighton & Hove Albion (4-3-3): David Stockdale 6, Bruno Saltor 7, Gordon Greer 7, Aaron Hughes 7, Inigo Calderon 6, Jake Forster-Caskey 6, Rohan Ince 6, Adam Chicksen 5, Kazenga LuaLua 5 (Joao Teixeira 64, 7), Craig Mackail-Smith 5 (Shamir Fenelon 76, 6), Chris O’Grady 6.
Not used: Casper Ankergren, Lewis Dunk, Nzuzi Toko, Vitalijs Maksimenko, Kemy Agustien.

Referee: Mark Brown 8; I thought the referee had a good game. Whilst it wasn’t a dirty game and there was nothing contentious, he nevertheless officiated the game in a decisive, unfussy manner and let the match flow when required. Notably he kept his cards in his pocket and some would say he was a little lenient but in many ways I think I prefer it that way.
Attendance: 14,955