View from the South – Birmingham City v Brentford

Firstly, I hope that all members of the Bluenose nation that follow my musings had a wonderful Christmas and may I wish you all a joyful, peaceful and prosperous 2017. The heavy rain of New Year’s Day had cleared and this Monday morning was greeted by a cloudless,beautiful, blue sky and glorious winter sunshine; the sort of morning that I imagine inspired Eleanor Farjeon’s writing of the famous hymn “Morning has broken, like the first morning.” I was aiming to catch the 10.30 train from Blackwater to Reading but before that I walked my elderly neighbour’s dog, Bentley, an energetic, cheerful and feisty Cairn Terrier. On the way round I wished a Happy New Year to a fellow dog walker who noticing my blue and white scarf which I was wearing against the chill, said, “Are those Reading colours there I see?” I replied, “No, Birmingham City” to which my acquaintance replied, “Oh, never mind!” It may be a new year but it never changes does it 😀 It transpired that my new friend was an Aldershot fan who had attended the local derby yesterday against the Cards (Woking for those unfamiliar with football in these parts.) it was hosing down in rain by all accounts on completely open terraces (reminds me of the away end at Fratton Park Portsmouth back in the day!) the 2,200 intrepids present were soaked through to the skin but Shots fans did see their team snatch the points 1-2 in time added on.

I returned home just in time to make my way down to the station allowing a little extra time for the slippy conditions underfoot. The ticket machines on both sides of the tracks were out of service so I spent most of the twenty minutes journey to Reading waiting in a queue for the guard at the back of the train to issue me with the appropriate tickets. At least it meant I wasn’t going to be tight for time at Reading so all’s well that ended well. The connecting Manchester train was running on time too so all was right with the world. I had spoken to Chris early doors and confirmed that I was travelling up and he met me off the train at Coventry at 12.25. We went briefly back to The Oak at Baginton, Chris’ pub and I grabbed a pint prior to journeying to St Andrews.

It has clearly been an eventful couple of weeks with the unexpected dismissal of Gary Rowett and the instillation of Gianfranco Zola into the manager’s seat. Whatever the reasons for this decision by our new owners, many of them speculative, it is important that we as fans get behind our new manager and continue to support the team. So far, Zola has not had the easiest of starts but Blues were unlucky to get robbed at the last by Brighton, who good team though they are did not deserve all three points. As for the Derby match, a draw was also there for the taking save for a stupid penalty given away allowing Bent to score and do us 1-0. How much did Vile pay for him? £23 million? I wouldn’t give you 23 pence! Anyway, two shocking goals conceded at Barnsley but at least there was a fighting response and on balance Blues should probably have won the game in the end especially after their lad got sent off. Never mind at least it stopped the rot and with January upon us let’s hope Zola can improve us defensively and creatively because we are nowhere near good enough to trouble the play off places at the moment.

Onto Brentford and the present. I am bound to say that although we prevailed 2-1 at their place recently, I felt we rode our luck and the win was based on an excellent defensive display and two opportunist goals that came about due to The Bees’ defensive frailties. They certainly have them so it was to be hoped that we could expose them again. First and foremost, a clean sheet would be welcome but I wasn’t holding my breath…………..and it was a good job I didn’t. If ever there was a game that was a game of two halves this was it. In the first period Blues were dominant, quick, incisive and they carved the visitors open several times and had the normally reliable Che Adams had his shooting boots on and a good save from Maghoma by Daniel Bentley not blocked his goal bound effort, Birmingham could and should have been three or four goals to the good rather than the one they eventually got after good link up work from Adams to the big man who deftly beat Bentley despite his best efforts. Quite frankly, I felt that on the balance of play at half time that Blues would go on from where they were to register a comfortable win. Clearly, their team talk was a darn sight better than ours because Brentford came out of the traps better and clearly went for a more energetic higher press against our defenders who are clearly not comfortable with the ball at their feet and are incapable of playing the quick, clever, short passing game that Zola wants to instil; Dear Gianfranco, this lot aren’t good enough! The result was inevitable as Blues kept coughing up possession until eventually Brentford found themselves with three totally unmarked players at the far post from a breakaway and cross from the right. Despite Kusczcak’s best endeavours, the away side had plenty of time to have at least two bites of the cherry one from Barbet before Hogan had time to take a touch, make a cuppa, drink it and score easily into the far corner; awful defending, truly awful but it was no more than Brentford deserved. 1-1 on 54 minutes.

A suicidal square pass from Spector to Shotton three minutes later resulted in the centre back tripping Lasse Vibe right on the edge of the box resulting in a yellow card and a penalty. Fortunately, Hogan’s kick was well saved for a corner by Kusczcak and I thought that this incident might just wake Blues up and provide the spark to get us going again. Unfortunately, Blues were looking tired, disjointed, lacking in confidence and clueless. The malaise continued and on 73 minutes, another silly free kick conceded because Cotterill, who was poor all afternoon, conceded possession thirty yards out and then was powder puff in the challenge to win it back leaving it to a colleague to try and bail him out. This allowed another defensive debacle to occur from the ball into the box and two headers later, the second, a fatal one by David Davis into his own net, it was 1-2. There is no point marking players but then not attacking the ball. That is now six goals in four games conceded from free kicks or corners and we were meant to have a solid back four! If anyone out there believes that they are delusional. Brentford’s third goal was a cracking strike from thirty yards into the top corner but where was the tracking and closing down? I can accept losing but the manner that we are losing and the teams we are losing to are hard to take when ultimately a lot of our downfall is down to failure to carry out basic drills. In fairness, we didn’t deserve to win against Brentford in London recently so today’s chastening experience is perhaps correctional retribution. Bad though we were in the second half Blues should have had this game won at half time; fail to take gilt edged chances and football will punish you.

The Good: The company of Chris as always, the first half performance which had everything except the three goals advantage it deserved.

The Bad: The second half; there is simply nothing positive to say about it apart from Kusczcak’s excellent penalty kick save. The cancellation of the 18.25 from Coventry at ten minutes notice meaning it took over three and a half hours to get home 🙁

The Ugly: Our players’ attempts to play pretty football out from the back.

Birmingham City: Thomas Kusczcak 8, Jonathan Spector 6, Ryan Shotton 6, Michael Morrison 6, Jonathan Grounds 7, Robert Tesche 6 (Greg Stewart 76, 6) Che Adams 6 Jacques Maghoma 7 (Maikel Kieftenbeld 62, 6) David Davis 6, David Cotterill 5 (Viv Soloman-Otabor 83, N/A) Lukas Jutkiewicz 7.

Subs not used: Adam Legzdins, Stephen Gleeson, Paul Robinson Josh Dacres-Cogley.

Goals: Jutkiewicz.

Yellow cards: Shotton, Tesche.

Brentford: Daniel Bentley 7, Maxime Colin 7, Andreas Bjelland 7 Harlee Dean 7, Egan 6, Josh McEachran 7 (Nico Yennaris 67, 7) Scott Hogan 7 (Philipp Hofmann 93, N/A) Ryan Woods 8, Romaine Sawyers 7, Yoann Barbet 7, Lasse Vibe 7 (Konstantin Kerschbaumer 83, N/A)

Subs not used: Jack Bonham, Josh Clarke, Alan McCormack, Sam Saunders.

Goals: Hogan, Davis (og) Yennaris.

Yellow cards: Bjelland, Egan.

Referee: James Alcock: 7; there were a few around me that were moaning about the officials and sure they got one or two calls wrong but overall I felt Mr Alcock refereed the game fairly and kept play moving with prudent use of the advantage law. The penalty decision against Shotton was tight as the infringement took place right on the edge of the box. I was right in line with the foul and felt that it was a penalty as soon as Shotton made the challenge. I have no arguments with the decision and frankly the suicidal pass to Shotton square across the box making the centre back make the challenge in the first place deserved to be punished severely. Great save by Kusczcak, so it could have been worse!

Attendance: 18,030

Bazza KRO