View from the South – Birmingham City v AFC Bournemouth

I had an early finish at work and nipped home to see if the ticket won in the ballot had arrived. Needless to say it hadn’t which was going to mean a wait in the queue at St Andrew’s with others in the same boat. There was no time to lose if I was going to meet up with Chris in Baginton early enough to get the ticket situation sorted out. Chris hadn’t received his or Jack’s so we were all going to have to go up to the ground early. I made good time from home and decided to drive up via Reading picking up the M4 towards Swindon then hanging a right onto the A34 to get on the M40 just north of Oxford. I felt this was a better route than risking the car park that is the M25. I would have made the journey in under two hours had it not been for road works at Chris’ end on the A46 but I still arrived about 5.15 and there was even time for a quick pint before setting off for the ground.

A queue had indeed formed outside the ticket office and we patiently waited our turn. Jack wasn’t with us but James; Chris’ soon to be son-in-law accompanied us instead. We ended up with five tickets since the kids we have linked to us were entitled to a ticket each as well. As fate would have it, there was a young father and son at the ticket booth being told that the tickets that they had previously purchased before the ground repair debacle became known were no longer valid and all they could be offered was a refund. They had travelled from Leicester and the dad was taking his young son to his first ever game and the disappointment on the little boy’s face was palpable. We waited until they had got their refund and duly offered the spare tickets to the pair. The look of delight on their faces was worth the journey. Don and his son Calum thanked us effusively and we all made our way round to the Gil Merrick stand and found we had good seats behind the goal. The desolate empty stands to our right and in the distance at the Tilton were not happy sights.

Blues had two changes from Saturday’s game against Stoke with Leko starting in place of Hogan and Tahith Chong, back from injury replacing Sunjic. The Manchester United loanee is the sort of player that gets bums off seats when he’s in possession and almost opened his account for Blues when he cleverly turned inside onto his left foot leaving his marker helpless before attempting to curl the ball past Mark Travers in the Bournemouth goal from 20 yards. The keeper was up to the task and pushed the ball wide to safety. Chong then set up Leko who was next to try his luck with a fierce right-footed shot but Travers once again saved well at the near post. Another effort from Chong forced a corner and apart from a slight lull in the middle of the half Blues were undoubtedly on top but the score still read 0-0. Bournemouth for their part had not had a single effort on goal and despite having plenty of possession spent most of the time passing square. I lost count of the number of times centre-back, Zeno Ibsen Rosi did just that. I reckon he was probably responsible for 50% of the 548 passes they made last night. It’s little wonder that their accuracy was 85% since most of the passes were from Rosi to his full backs and back again! In the first half especially they played in front of Blues and could make little progress against the press.

In the second half, Bournemouth came out with a little more intent and following a slick, clever move down the left flank, Jaidon Antony found himself in the Blues box about 15 yards out but failed to get a clean connection on the attempted shot into the far corner and Sarkic was able to get down and save reasonably comfortably. Bournemouth incursions were short lived and Blues were soon back in the ascendency. On 64 minutes after an excellent passage of play by the home side, they appeared to have taken a deserved lead through a classic Lukas Jutkiewicz header from Maxime Colin’s cross only for the assistant’s flag to be raised for offside. The play was up the other end so we have to trust to the official’s judgement but it was very disappointing.

As the game wore on you always had that feeling that Bournemouth were going to get a chance and it duly came against the run of play on 77 minutes when a floated ball down the right was seized upon by Solanke. Now we all had a clear view of Solanke and Marc Roberts as they ran towards goal. Solanke clearly pushes the ball in front of his feet with his hand. It was as clear as day and yet the assistant quick on the draw with offside calls all evening, of course missed it! I’m bound to say Solanke did well to get the shot off from an acute angle and was fortunate that it passed between the defender’s stride to find the perfect place just inside the far post. A lovely finish; pity about the illegality of the build up! Having been the better side for most of the evening, Blues found themselves one down to a goal that should never have stood. Football, like life is unfair sometimes.

Blues chased the game and from a Bournemouth corner with only three minutes left, they took a risk by leaving players forward in the hope of a breakaway. Sadly, the delivery to the far post found square pass artisan, Zeno Ibsen Rosi completely unmarked and his header back across found an equally unmarked Jaidon Antony to volley home from six yards as a gaggle of Blues defenders followed the original flight of the ball. This was poor defending in truth but the game was up anyway and the lads can be forgiven for at least taking a chance to salvage an equalizer that their play had richly deserved. The score line does not reflect the true nature of this contest. Last season we were given a football lesson by the Cherries as they ran out 3-1 winners ina one-sided contest. This time there was little between the sides and the turning point was the failure of the officials to do their job properly. Had they called the handball by Solanke, I suspect this match ends all square. Blues played well and got mugged by a smash-and-grab win by the visitors. If that had been my team, I would have been delighted as the Bournemouth fans undoubtedly are. It was the perfect away performance. Blues move on to Luton on Saturday. I can’t go to that one, as sadly, I had no chance of obtaining a ticket. Blues should be confident because playing like this, they will win more games than they lose. They were applauded off the pitch despite the defeat and rightly so.

There are a lot of positives to take from this game. Tahith Chong is a hell of a player and I’m thrilled he is in a Blues shirt for this season at least. Bela played well I thought despite an article on line suggesting he was our second worst player. His tracking back and defensive responsibility have improved markedly and the home crowd roared approval for winning the ball from the Bournemouth wide men on more than one occasion. I thought Sarkic and the defensive unit were solid; Bournemouth’s 87th minute corner aside. Jukey worked hard as usual but I thought Chuks Aneke did well when he replaced him. Leko had a better game than of late but he desperately needs a goal to fire his season. Wood and Gardner performed well and overall it was a good performance. We just need a goal or two.

The Good: The delight on young Calum’s face as we handed two tickets to his dad! It was great to be able to do a couple of complete strangers but nevertheless fellow fans, a good turn.

The Bad: The officials missing the blatant handball; it turned the match in the Cherries’ favour unfairly.

The Ugly: The empty Kop and Tilton stands.

Birmingham City: Matija Sarkic, Harlee Dean (C), Marc Roberts, Kristian Pedersen, Maxime Colin, Gary Gardner, Ryan Woods, Tahith Chong (Ivan Sanchez 87), Jeremie Bela, Lukas Jutkiewicz (Chuks Aneke 70), Jonathan Leko (Scott Hogan 79).

Substitutes not used: Connal Trueman, Juan Castillo, George Friend, Ivan Sunjic.

Booking: Pedersen 73.

AFC Bournemouth: Mark Travers, Leif Davis (Ben Pearson 69), Chris Mepham, Zeno Ibsen Rosi, Lloyd Kelly (C), Jordan Zemura, Emiliano Marcondes (Junior Stanislas 60), Gavin Kilkenny, Philip Billing, Jaidon Anthony, Dominic Solanke.

Substitutes not used: Orjan Nyland, Kyle Taylor, Christian Saydee, Nathan Moriah-Welsh, Brennan Camp.

Booking: None.

Referee: Andy Davies: On the positive side, the man in the middle kept play flowing even if it was at the expense of some free kicks that should have been given. He was inconsistent in booking Pedersen for a meaty challenge and yet let at least two similar challenges from Bournemouth go. He was let down by his assistants one of whom should have spotted the Solanke handball.

Attendance: 9,922

KRO Bazza