A View From the South Armchair
Last night, I watched the match doing what I do best; sitting on my arse! I did it from the comfort of my armchair. As many of you who take the trouble to read the absolute drivel that I turn out whenever I attend matches will know, that reporting on games that I actually don’t go to is not something I like to do. However, Kev prevailed upon me to write a piece about last night’s game. I left work last night and didn’t get home much before 7 o’clock so I would’ve had no chance whatsoever of making it to the game even if I’d been in the mood to drive the 125 miles north. I do not like Friday night games at the best of times and it seems this season with the World Cup falling when it did that I seem to have missed an awful lot of games because of rescheduling that I would normally have attended had they been played when they should be at 3 pm on a Saturday afternoon. This means that I have missed out on what I find are enjoyable occasions in the main as I do enjoy meeting up with mates, the banter, having a couple of pints only to have the whole day spoiled by a game of football! However like most bluenoses the addiction is in my blood and there is nothing I can do other than continue to support the lads from near and far.
So it was, that I sat down in front of the telly at 8 o’clock for kickoff. It would appear that for the first time in a long time John Eustace had a full squad to choose from. In recent times the Blues have been conceding goals that earlier in the season had not been happening. Swansea, on Saturday, for instance, we conceded three of the softest goals that I’ve seen in a long time. Defensively we were as porous as a colander but I’m bound to say that the normally reliable John Ruddy has to be held responsible for at least two of the goals. The first one I felt getting beaten at the near post, he could’ve done a lot better with by his standards although George Friend allowing the scorer to turn in the box and shoot was unpardonable. As for their third goal his attempted clearance was absolutely farcical and Swansea will not have an easier gift bestowed upon them this season to take a 3-2 lead against the run of play. The events that happened from the 90th to the 97th minute will go down in Blues folklore.
It was nice for once for the Gods of football to actually smile upon us for a change. Having watched the highlights of the game and looked at it from the perspective of Swansea TV rather than Blues TV it was quite interesting how incredibly poor we were in the first half which is not a perspective that you get with our coverage. I consider that we were extremely lucky for Swansea not to have been completely out of sight in the first half and I think that we count ourselves very fortunate to have only been one down at half-time in that game. So despite the win I was still quite apprehensive given how poor the defending has been in recent times.
However, my fears were dispersed by the start that we made and maintained throughout the game. I think the performance last night has to go down as one of the best that we have put in this season. I cannot think of a single player who played badly or was in any way below par last night. John Eustace reverted to a back four and made us look so much more solid than we have during the dismal five game losing streak. Blues started on the front foot and never wavered in intensity at any stage. I can honestly say this was a complete 90 minutes performance rather than a good half and a bad half which is what we tend to do. The manager made three changes to the team that played on Saturday and I was pleased to see Lukas Jutkiewicz coming in for only his fourth start of the season to partner Scott Hogan upfront. Hannibal Mejbri returned to the starting lineup as did Juninho Bacuna with George Friend and Gary Gardner reverting to the bench. Clearly the game plan was go more direct and it had a galvanising effect on the team. In truth, Birmingham should have been ahead in the first few minutes when a beautiful delivery into the box found Auston Trusty in splendid isolation a matter of only 6 yards out. The ball seem to cannon off the top of his head rather than the forehead and I agreed with the commentating team that felt that he really should’ve scored.
However, Blues did not have to wait long for the opening goal and it was a remarkable finish when it came. Hannibal lined up a freekick 25 yards out in the inside right position and signalled as if he was going to deliver the normal cross to the assembled forwards on the edge of the penalty area. The Baggies’ defensive line was set up as per usual and the normal jostling for position was taking place. The Tunisian had noticed however that David Button in goal for West Bromwich Albion was standing over towards the far post and well off his line clearly expecting a cross and intent on coming for the ball when the delivery was made. Hannibal had other ideas and gave the goalkeeper the eyes and curled a beautifully whipped freekick to the near post starting it out wide before curling it back in just inside the post giving the keeper no chance of getting to it. I was off my seat in elated joy. When was the last time we scored directly from a free kick? This was Hannibal’s first senior goal and what a way to provide it. This represented superb, clever innovation and it had the effect of taking the wind, or what little there was out of the sails of the opposition.
I always worry when Blues take the lead early on in a game since the opposition tend to come back at us and we tend to revert into our shell. Certainly that appears to have been the situation at St Andrew’s for some time. However, Blues did not allow the Baggies to get going apart from probing down the right from ex-Villa man on loan to Albion from Leicester, Marc Albrighton. He had the Baggies’ best chance of the half when presented with a shot from 25 yards which although goalbound was deflected by Auston Trusty for a corner. The only other dodgy moment that I can recall was when Kevin Long sold John Ruddy a little short with a back pass which had the keeper scrambling to get to the ball meeting the onrushing Daryl Dike on the edge of the area. The ball cannoned off the forward and went back into the Tilton crowd for a goal kick. This was a fortunate let off which in the last few games we’ve not been getting away with. However a Baggies equaliser would have been unjustified and undeserved on the first half performance. Indeed, Albion can consider themselves lucky to only have been 1-0 down at the interval.
The second half started with Blues once again on the front foot and they appeared to be carrying on where they left off. This was pleasing as again one of our recent traits has been for us to allow opposition teams periods of joy in the game. A corner gained from the constant pressing of the Albion defenders on the right was delivered with pinpoint precision by Hannibal into the 6 yard box. David Button came for the ball as he should with a ball delivered into that area but unfortunately for him, he got nowhere near it and Krystian Bielik was able to plant a free header into the net to the delight of the home faithful. Although a 2-0 lead is considered a dangerous scoreline, it never looked at any stage that Albion were going to get back into the game. The only time John Ruddy was troubled was from a shot towards the top corner made a little tricky by a deflection off the head of Krystian Bielik, but our captain for the night parried the ball away for a corner. Ruddy misplaced a clearance kick to an Albion player half way through the half which fortunately did not result in the type of punishment we received on Saturday. Apart from these isolated incidents, Birmingham City commanded this match from start to finish and were thoroughly deserving of all three points.
I had spoken to Will at half-time and we had agreed that Blues were playing very well; he said that he wanted us to score a second which of course we did but my first desire from this game was a clean sheet and to achieve that was very pleasing. This performance was like the ones that we seemed to be producing before the World Cup break and it is to be hoped that this vein of form continues. A funny thing happened a couple of minutes from time when substitute Troy Deeney came on in the 86 minute. He had barely been on the pitch for more than a couple of minutes when he got in a tangle with an opposition player and bundled the said player into the side hoardings with merely a flick of his wrist having grabbed a handful of shirt, throwing him to the floor. In truth, both players were at it but the commentator came out with a comment; “It looks as if he’s been Troy Deeney-ed!” Troy Deeney was booked for it which I think was fair enough as it was a violent act but it was funny nevertheless.
I’ll take 2-0, a great performance, the first double over the Baggies since 1999 (in fact the first over anybody since Luton last season? Feel feel to correct me if anyone knows different.) On to Cardiff at home on Tuesday; another game I can’t realistically get to. Another for the red button or Blues TV methinks.
The Good: An excellent performance from Birmingham. Two good goals, an all round performance and three valuable points. A man of the match performance from Hannibal Mejbri.
The Bad: The fact that I have not been able to get to the game either last night or last Saturday. Chris was at a quiz! (Yeah, I know, that’s what I said!) and as for little Jack he was getting lucky (it’s Valentine’s Day weekend – do you want me to draw you a picture?)
The Ugly: The prospect of being Troy Deeney-ed!
Birmingham City: John Ruddy 7, Maxime Colin 7, Dion Sanderson 8, Kevin Long 7, Auston Trusty 8, Krystian Bielik 8, Juninho Bacuna 7 (Harlee Dean 86, N/A), Hannibal Mejbri 9 (George Hall 71, 7), Tahith Chong 7, Lukas Jutkiewicz 7 (Gary Gardner 64, 7), Scott Hogan 7 ( Troy Deeney 86, N/A).
Subs not used: Neil Etheridge, George Friend, Jordan James.
Goals: Mejbri 10, Bielik 52.
Bookings: Sanderson 45, Trusty 45+4, Jutkiewicz 64, Deeney 89.
West Bromwich Albion: David Button 5, Darnell Furlong 6, Dara O’Shea 7, Erik Peters 6, Conor Townsend 6 (Adam Reach 68, 6), Okay Yokuslu 6 (Brandon Thomas Asante 55, 6), Jason Molumby 6, Grady Diangana 6 (Nathaniel Chalobah 55, 6), Jed Wallace 6, Marc Albrighton 7 (John Swift 55, 7), Daryl Dike 6 (Karlan Grant 68, 6).
Subs not used: Josh Griffiths, Semi Ajayi.
Bookings: Yokuslu 45+4, Wallace 90+2, Molumby 90+5.
Referee: James Linnington: 7 It is very easy to be benevolent to the officials when your team has won but trying to be totally dispassionate, I thought the referee had a good game. What I liked was that he wasn’t buying the cheap free kicks when both sets of players were trying it on. He wasn’t having it and thus allowed the game to flow. When there was a bit of handbags he called the perpetrators over and told them to pack it in and on one occasion booked the pair of them! I like that no nonsense approach. The bookings for Trusty crossing the ball to the other side of the pitch when the whistle had long gone and the ‘Troy Deeney-ed ‘ incident were both fair enough in my view.
Attendance: 17,781
KRO Bazza
Leave a Reply