View from the South – Birmingham City v Luton Town

Usually, on the morning of a home game, I have plenty of time to plan my journey and so I sat at the computer to book my ticket. It was 09.30 and a good hour before my normal train until I discovered that British Rail was running a bus service between Blackwater and Reading. The bus was setting off at 10.03 which meant that by the time I had booked my tickets, I was tight for time. Mrs Bazza dropped me at the station and fortunately the ticket machine was working and I was able to print out my tickets (there was no facility to do this on line!) The journey proceeded without mishap and I caught the normal Manchester train at Reading on time.

Once again we had had a disappointing result in mid-week. 2-0 down at half time at Bournemouth (as much as I expected to be honest) I finally managed to get the game up on the red button on SKY. I’d missed the first half as the famed red button had not been active for some reason but as it was I sat down to watch us get pasted. The Cherries looked in control until they had Lerma sent off for a truly shocking tackle on Hernandez. The latter was booed for the rest of the game by the home support but they had no case for grievance. The challenge was worth three red cards let alone one and I note that his suspension of 4 games has been upheld and rightly so. He has been dismissed three times so far this season so in many ways, I’m glad he doesn’t play for us! Players like that are a liability if they don’t learn to control themselves. Blues got back into the game with a goal and should have equalised in truth soon after. Their keeper made two excellent saves and it seemed only a matter of when and not if we regained parity. Then disaster struck; our depleted defence was weakened further by Mengi having to go off injured with a hamstring strain. Bournemouth then scored against the run of play to restore their two goal cushion since any semblance of proper defending had left the field. Despite the patched up rearguard, there is little excuse for Bournemouth’s third. Whatever happens for the rest of the season, in the summer, we must sort out the defence. We are simply abysmal and we don’t score enough to be profligate.

The injury situation is serious and we appear to have virtually no defenders to field. There is talk of drafting in a free agent or two but I’ll believe it when I see it. Once again, I was travelling up for a game more in hope than expectation. Chris was waiting at Coventry to pick me up at just before 12.30. We briefly went back to The Oak to pick up little Jack and Seb and were soon on our way along the A45. The first problem was negotiating the awful traffic because of the roadworks along most of its length but some deep knowledge of local roads from Chris got us to St Andrew’s in plenty of time for a couple of pints in the George before walking up to the ground for a steak and ale pie washed down with another pint.

The game started with Luton on the front foot for the first twenty minutes or so. They won a succession of corners and free kicks which gave the impression that Blues were under the cosh but the reality was that Luton never really threatened and Birmingham for once defended well and didn’t switch off at set pieces. An interesting thing happened on 14 minutes when a load of tennis balls were thrown on the pitch by way of protest against the owners. It caused some mirth but the objects were soon cleared and play back underway. Blues started to get a foothold in the game after a slow start midway through the half and admittedly against the run of play, Blues took the lead. After some good play in the form of a driving run from captain, Gary Gardner down the right flank the ball was delivered low across the box where Lyle Taylor was lurking to pick up on a poor clearance. Facing away from goal, he had the presence of mind to pass a short ball back to Bacuna who carefully side-footed from 12 yards into the roof of the net to the delight of the home support. Whether it was deserved was arguable but with the way things have gone for us recently, we weren’t about to complain. The goal seemed to take the wind out of Luton’s sails but ex-Blue, Amari’i Bell tested Neil Etheridge as the visitors attempted to respond but it was a tame effort in truth. Blues for their part attempted to add to their lead before half time but Gary Gardner’s header across the six yard box was well read by James Shea and the teams and crowd went to the break with Blues 1-0 to the good.

The second period could not have started better for Blues when a back pass and inadvertent miscue by Henri Lansbury was seized upon by LyleTaylor. The Forest loanee made no mistake from 16 yards and slid the ball past Shea with aplomb to double Birmingham’s lead. Luton had a little flurry in an attempt to rectify the damage and Campbell came close on two occasions firing wide when he probably should have got the attempt on target and then had a decent attempt saved by Etheridge, the only time the Blues keeper was seriously exerted. The result was put beyond doubt by Onel Hernandz on 69 minutes when a cross from the right from Krystian Pederson was controlled beautifully before delivering a precise finish back across Shea from the corner of the six yard box for 3-0. Luton were done at this point and Blues controlled the last phase of the game to run out comprehensive and worthy winners.

The Good: Coming out of the ground at the end, an old curmudgeon (like me I am told) was obviously complaining to his son about the amount of time the ball had spent in the air. The son’s reply was priceless and made my day; “we’ve won 3-0 and you’re still moaning!”

The Bad: The cold blustery conditions but for all that the football wasn’t bad.

The Ugly: The traffic on the Coventry road! Seriously not funny at the moment. Message to the Highways Agency; get it finished for mercy’s sake!

Birmingham City: Neil Etheridge 7, Maxime Colin 7, Teden Mengi 7, Krystian Pedersen 7, Jeremie Bela 8 (Jordan James 90, N/A), Ryan Woods 7, Jordan Graham 7, Gary Gardner 8, Juninho Bacuna 7 (Ivan Sunjic 74, 6), Lyle Taylor 9 (Lukas Jutkiewicz 74, 6), Onel Hernandez 8.

Subs not used: Connal Trueman, Remi Walker, Marcel Oakley, Tate Campbell.

Goals: Bacuna 25, Taylor 46, Hernandez 69.

Bookings: None.

Luton Town: James Shea 6, Tom Lockyer 6 (Carlos Mendes Gomes 57, 6), Reece Burke 6, Kal Naismith 6, James Bree 7, Allan Campbell 7, Henri Lansbury 6 (Fred Onyedinma 57, 6), Pelly-Riddock Mpanz 6, Amari’i Bell 7, Harry Cornick 6 (Gabriel Osho, 75, 6), Elijah Adebayo 7.

Subs not used: Daniel Potts, Danny Hylton, Jed Steer, Cameron Jerome.

Goals: None.

Bookings: Osho 85.

Referee: Darren Bond; 6: Got off to a shaky start in my view but picked up midway through the first half and got more of a grip of the game. I am not a fan of officials that book every player in sight but repeated fouls against Lyle Taylor and Hernandez in particular went leniently unpunished. A couple of yellow cards were warranted in the first half which may have given the flair players a bit more of a platform. A decent performance from the man in the middle for all that.

Attendance: 17,292

Bazza KRO