Do you ever feel sometimes that God is a Villa fan and he hates you? That is exactly how I’m beginning to feel having found out yesterday that the Stockport game on 3 December has been moved by 24 hours to the Wednesday. I had arranged some work related stuff in Birmingham to coincide and it was my intention to come up the day before, meet up with mates, get some business done, visit an elderly relative, go for a curry with some old school friends in the evening, stay overnight in the hotel where my mandatory training module was being held then go to the match before going back home. I’ve still got to do all the running around but now will miss the game because I have work on the Wednesday. Best laid plans of mice and men eh?
If that wasn’t enough, travel to and from today’s game was eventful. Chris wasn’t able to go today so his ticket was going spare. Will wasn’t able to use it so offered it to me. I asked my son Jonny if he wanted to go and he duly arrived on Saturday morning in time to get to the station. There was a replacement bus between Blackwater and Reading which got us there in plenty of time to catch the Manchester Piccadilly train at 11.15. Guess what? Yes, it was cancelled and held at Reading because of a blockage on the line. We were advised to go via London Paddington. The last time Jonny came with me to a game the trains were disrupted and it made for a very long day so I am beginning to think that he’s jinxed!
We did have a stroke of good luck in that the next train to Paddington was coming in on the next platform and it was the fast one. We were lucky with the tube and got to Euston to catch the Edinburgh train stopping at New Street leaving in ten minutes. So at least we still got to Birmingham in time to get the shuttle bus and enjoy some food and drink in the fan park. Although eventful, it could have been so much worse!
As for the game this turned out to be a wholly frustrating exercise. Once again we failed to score enough goals to secure another win against a mediocre Northampton Town side. Blues as has been their won’t, enjoyed plenty of the ball; 79% possession by all accounts but despite the pretty patterns and accurate passing, we simply failed to break down the packed Town defence. All the possession and dominance in the world does not win football games, scoring does and failure to do so can lead to the opposition taking the lead against the run of play which the Cobblers so nearly did when following a lucky deflection into his path from an attempted pass by Sam Hoskins, Jon Guthrie found himself one on one against Ryan Allsop in the 18th minute. The Blues keeper made himself big and pulled off a fantastic save to spare Blues blushes. This was by far the clearest and best chance of the half and by rights Guthrie should have scored. Blues continued to dominate without threatening Lee Burge’s goal and it was causing the sell out home crowd frustration that the home side were trying to walk the ball in rather than take a risk and shoot. Despite being the better side Blues nearly went behind from a corner just before the break when Cameron McGeehan was given too much space at the far post and it was just as well that his header was cleared by Paik.
Blues had obviously had a talking to at half time as they came out in the second period on the front foot. Moving the ball quicker, being less elaborate and injecting pace, Northampton were clearly struggling to live with the home side. Chances by Alfie May and Willum Willumsson were narrowly wide of the mark and Klarer stabbed a cross goalwards but straight at Burge. Frequent changes by the visitors in an attempt to refresh tiring legs did little to hold up the waves of pressure. With just under an hour gone the breakthrough was finally achieved. A beautiful cross from Cochrane was flicked on by Willumsson into the path of Jay Stansfield who found the net off the underside of the crossbar from close range to send the packed stands into raptures. Blues came very close to doubling their lead a few minutes later when substitute, Yokohama cut back onto his right foot close to the byline and his inswinging cross was flicked on by the head of Stansfield but the effort grazed the wrong side of the post. Luke Harris actually struck the same post with a header but the second goal that would surely have put the game beyond Northampton would not come.
Blues appeared to have the game under control nevertheless going into seven minutes of time added on. Six of those had elapsed when a hopeful hoof down the pitch which should have normally been routinely dealt with by the centre-halves hit the retreating Dion Sanderson on the back and the ricochet fell dead weight just outside the box. Why Iwata who was the nearest Blues player did not put his foot through it only he will know. The situation which years ago Rodney Marsh used to describe as a schmozzel resulted in the ball finding its way out to Mitch Pinnock on the corner of the box. The shot was hard straight and true and across Allsop whose despairing dive could not prevent parity being restored; and that fellow fanatics, was that! Northampton didn’t mug us; we mugged ourselves. 79% possession, 25 shots, only 3 on target. They had 5 shots, 3 on target. This was a giveaway; Christmas is weeks away!
As we left the ground soaking up the disappointment of the two points carelessly thrown away, Jack kindly offered Jonny and I a lift to Coventry train station and we were able to call in to The Burnt Post for a quick pint before catching our train. I’ve been on overcrowded trains in the past but this was on a different level. We had to stand all the way from Coventry to Reading tooth by jowl with multiple strangers. We never made it into the body of any carriage. We were wedged in near the doors and were constantly buffeted by worse for wear individuals from Southampton returning from Wolverhampton desperately needing to void their bladders. I will leave it to you to imagine what chaos that caused! The journey was hot, uncomfortable, made only tolerable by the humour of the sardine-packed crowd. Cross Country rail network continue to provide an unreliable, lousy service and it is my fervent hope that their franchise is not renewed when their present contract expires.
The Good: The away support; excellent turn out from them and they never stopped cheering for their side.
The Bad: The public transport Jonny and I had to endure in both directions. It totally marred the day.
The Ugly: The imbecilic shouting out during the minute’s silence before the game. It came from the corner low down where the Northampton fans were. I wasn’t sure which side of the divide the disrespect came from but loud protests of “shut the f*** up!” from the opposite end of the ground was wholly uncalled for. The anger expressed at the violation of this solemn tradition of remembrance is a sentiment I share but shouting out in protest in such a way was shameful.
Birmingham City: Ryan Allsop 7, Ethan Laird 7 (Alphose Sampsted 74, 7) Christoph Klarer 7, Krystian Bielik 7 (Dion Sanderson 88, N/A) Alex Cochrane 7, Tomoki Iwata 6, Paik Seung-ho 6, Willum Willumsson 7 (Lyndon Dykes 88, N/A) Keshi Anderson 7 (Ayumu Yokoyama 73, 6) Alfie May 6 (Luke Harris 62, 6) Jay Stansfield 7.
Subs not used: Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Marc Leonard.
Goals: Stansfield 58.
Yellow cards: Allsop 90+2.
Northampton Town: Lee Burge 7, Akin Odimayo 7, Tyler Magloire 7 (Timothy Eyoma 50, 6) Jack Baldwin 6 (Will Hondermarck 55, 6) Jon Guthrie 7, Nesta Guinness-Walker 7, Cameron McGeehan 6, Ben Fox 6 (Neo Dobson 71, 5) Mitch Pinnock 7, Liam McCarron 5 (Martyn Waghorn 70, 5) Sam Hoskins 6 (Samy Chouchane 70, 6)
Subs not used: Reuben Wyatt, Nik Tzanev.
Goals: Pinnock 90+6
Yellow cards: Guthrie 41, McGeehan 60, Pinnock 90+1.
Referee: Carl Brook; 6: had a solid enough game and there was nothing too contentious. The poor result for us was wholly of our own making.
Attendance: 27,085
KRO Bazza
Couldn’t agree more about Blues performance and the minutes silence. When are people going to learn that by shouting at or booing others breaking the silence you are doing exactly the same. Wait till it’s over before making your feelings shown.
As for Blues Chris Davies has one major question to answer in my opinion. Why with our squad are we not scoring more goals?