It has been a stressful and altogether very hectic week. Following the match on Tuesday against Cardiff I got home to find the following morning that my wallet was missing out of my pocket. After the initial wave of panic and looking round everywhere I could think of in the house I had to come to the sad collusion that I had lost it somewhere on the way. I rang the Jilabi curry house where we had had a meal expecting that that was the most obvious place only to find that unfortunately they could find no trace of it. I also rang the club reception and asked if a wallet has been handed in, once again to no avail. Naturally I checked the car and everywhere I could think of and in the end had to admit defeat and reorder all my credit and debit cards.
I’m glad to say that having checked my bank details that there appeared to have been no illegal activity so at least I haven’t had somebody going round shops using my cards and tapping up to hundred pounds at a time. It hadn’t been my intention to drive back up to Birmingham for an early kickoff start and since the match was being televised on SKY, I decided to watch it from the comfort of my armchair. The best made plans of mice and men intervened once again however, when my disabled cousin, who lives in Sutton Coldfield, was discharged from the care home where she has been for over a year to her home. Although she had a care package in place it was clear from the various phone calls to back and forth on Wednesday that there was an element of not coping going on. I soon realised that I had no choice but to travel up to Birmingham to sort a few things out and so I decided that I would drive up on Friday afternoon, stay over with Chris, sort out what I needed to and also kill a number of other birds with one stone such as hooking up with an old school mate as I had promised to do sometime back and also, of course, go to the game on the Saturday.
I did indeed get up to see my cousin on Friday afternoon sorted out various bits and pieces for her, made sure that she had plenty of food and other comforts and then set off in the evening to see an old mate of mine, Nigel, whom I have known since school days. It seems very frightening that he and I have known each other for nearly 60 years and over a most convivial meal enjoyed a lot of reminiscences about our past lives. I drove back to Baginton from Birmingham and after a long day’s driving and running around after other people enjoyed a late night pint with Chris in the Oak. I then went to bed and woke up later than usual having had a lie in and got up at a rather lazy twenty to eight. I then went over to Chris’ place where there was the promise of a fat boy’s breakfast which was duly enjoyed by Chris, little Jack and yours truly. Fortified as we were and the inner man restored, we set off for St Andrew’s for the early kickoff getting there in time for a quick pint in the George.
To much fanfare and fireworks as the teams came out, the game started promptly at 12:30. Blues got off to a positive start and Bacuna was the first one to have a chance to score with a shot from the edge of the area which unfortunately was too high. Birmingham we’re playing some crisp incisive football but it was the concession of a free kick on the edge of our box by Kevin Long that led to the visitors taking the lead somewhat against the run of play. Kevin Nisbet stepped up and placed a fierce drive across the goalkeeper, round the wall which although John Ruddy managed to get his hand to the ball, was unable to prevent it entering the net. This was similar to the Cardiff game where the visitors had taken an early lead and I feared the worst when Blues went straight on the front foot again only to squander chances. Bacuna was the worst culprit because when well-placed about 12 yards out from a well work move down the left, he blazed over from what would be considered close range for a professional footballer. The wide man tried to make amends a few moments later cutting inside and testing the handling skills of ex-Blues goalkeeper, Sarkic who saved well.
Further chances would come and go notably a header by Sanderson from a set piece that he failed to place on target when in good position. Millwall were nevertheless looking quite dangerous on their occasional forays into Blues territory and did force a number of corners during the first period. From one of these they thought they had taken a two-goal lead. The ball was delivered from the far side at the Tilton end and floated out to Ryan Leonard 25 yards out and his beautiful volley was slammed goalwards with fierce pace. It appeared to take a slight deflection before going past John Ruddy in the Blues goal. I thought it was a beautiful strike and one of the goals of the season and was reconciled to a big uphill battle at this stage against a highly physical Millwall team who are well organised and clearly had a game plan that was going to make life very difficult for Blues throughout the rest of the afternoon.
However Blues were saved by the linesman’s belated flag which I think came about following a discussion between him and the referee. The linesman had noticed that the deflection appeared to come off a player standing in an offside position just in front of John Ruddy. This spoiled what was otherwise an absolute picture goal although I’m not complaining. Having had this reprieve the game appeared to be meandering towards the break with Blues in deficit. However another apparent reprieve was to result in the last minute of the four minutes added on. Keshi Anderson was felled in the box by Sarkic after a lovely ball from Bacuna through to him. The ball appeared to have been played a little too firmly but Keshi Anderson managed to get a toe on the ball just before the keeper arrived sending him some tumbling. The referee had no hesitation but to point to the spot and Scott Hogan stepped up to take it.
I will confess that I always feel a little nervous when Hogan takes penalties for us since his record is somewhat patchy. Sure enough despite hitting it firm and low to Sarkic’s right, the keeper dived across and saved it and unfortunately the follow-up attempt by Ivan Sunjic trickled agonisingly wide of the post. The half-time whistle was to then follow and a deflated St Andrew’s went in the direction of the catering areas for half-time refreshment.
The second half started with Millwall attempting to control their way through to a narrow win which was perfectly reasonable in the circumstances they found themselves in. I had a feeling that they were going to be successful when on 53 minutes salvation finally occurred. Juninho Bacuna cutting from wide into the inside right channel and delivered a ball through to Stansfield who had just enough room and time to fire a stinging shot across the keeper into the far corner of the net which resulted in St Andrew’s erupting in joy. Birmingham had the tails up at this stage and a clearly rattled Millwall rearguard were now starting to put in some fairly desperate tackles resulting in a quickfire bookings for ex-Blue, Wes Harding who had recently come on as a substitute and Norton-Cuffey within a minute of each other. Further chances were to follow from Stansfield, Hogan and Sunjic but the combination of good goalkeeping and resolute defending prevented Blues stealing a winner. Blues go into the international break yet to lose in the league with 11 points from five games; a decent start by any standards.
As a postscript, I dropped Chris at Moseley Park where he was attending the folk festival. On the way, caught in the post match traffic, I had a phone call from the blues reception in the form of Pauline whom I had spoken to earlier in the week about my lost wallet. She announced that said item had been handed in to security and it was ready for collection. I’d cancelled my financial cards of course but it’s the other personal items I was relieved to get back and I’m truly grateful for all the staff involved for getting back to me; thank you so much.
The Good: The goals; both excellent in their different ways. Ruddy will perhaps feel that having got to it that he could have done a little better? Both teams contributed to an entertaining game. Finally, getting my lost wallet back!
The Bad: Finishing! Especially the penalty kick; I have no doubt that had that been converted Blues go on and win this match. We created enough chances in the game to have won and more ruthlessness is required in front of goal. That said, I felt the result was a fair one.
The Ugly: The assembled throng in the lower tier of the Gil Merrick Stand from south-east London. There again, they always are! 🙂
Birmingham City: John Ruddy 6, Cody Drameh 6, Dion Sanderson 7, Kevin Long 6, Lee Buchanon 7, Krystian Bielik 7, Ivan Sunjic 7, Keshi Anderson 7 (Emmauel Longelo 90, N/A) Juninho Bacuna 7 (Jordan James 82, N/A) Jay Stansfield 8 (Koji Miyoshi 72, 6) Scott Hogan 5.
Subs not used: Neil Etheridge, Marcel Oakley, Marc Roberts, Emanuel Aiwu, Gary Gardner, Brandon Khela.
Goals: Stansfield 53.
Yellow cards: Bacuna 47.
Millwall: Matija Sarkic 8, Ryan Leonard 6, Shaun Hutchinson 6 (Wes Harding 32, 6) Jake Cooper 7, Brooke Norton-Cuffey 7 (Alan Campbell 76, 6) Billy Mitchell 7, George Saville 7, Murray Wallace 7 (Ryan Longman 76, 6) Tom Bradshaw 6, Zian Flemming 7 (Romain Esse 82, N/A) Kevin Nisbet 7 (Danny McNamara 76, 6)
Subs not used: Bartosz Bialkowski, Duncan Watmore, Aidomo Emakhu, Casper de Norre.
Goals: Nisbet 6.
Yellow cards: Harding 58, Norton-Cuffey 59.
Referee: Josh Smith: 6; a solid enough performance in my view but crucially got the important decisions right. Chalked off the second Millwall goal on the advice of his assistant who had spotted the late deflection that marred an otherwise cracking strike. The penalty decision was correct, shame about Hogan’s execution!
Attendance: 18,710.
KRO Bazza
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