Another beautiful spring day greeted the first Saturday of April. Mrs Bazza gave me a lift down to Blackwater station where the previous afternoon I had seen Chris off on the same journey I would be taking. Chris had just delivered a new car to a customer and arrangements had been made for her old car to be auctioned at Blackbush Auctions which is only about a mile or so from home for me so when Chris rang and told where he was going to be around 3.30 pm it seemed the stars had aligned and a beer or two in the Ely half a mile away beckoned. A couple of convivial pints were enjoyed before I gave Chris a lift to Blackwater for his journey home. Coming back to the present, the trains ran on time but I had to stand all the way from Reading to Coventry as the train was packed but at least I had the company of a fellow intrepid bluenose, Des who lives in the next road to me.
Chris picked me up and we went back to Baginton to collect Jack and Seb and await the arrival of Will and little Will. We proceeded to The Oak for a pint whilst we waited. As soon as everyone was assembled we all piled in Will’s car for the journey down the A45 to St Andrew’s. We grabbed a pie and a pint in the Box to Box bar and settled into our seats.
I was expecting a more open game than usual as Barnsley have had the reputation of a slick, adept midfield in League 1. On paper they are not a team to be taken lightly boasting one of the best away records in the division. (10 wins!) Things got off to a bad start for the visitors however, when a lovely ball by Ryan Allsop to Keshi Anderson saw the wide man cynically felled when clearly through on goal 25 yards out. Mael de Gevigney, the offender was strictly the last man and the referee wasted no time brandishing the red card with only three minutes on the clock. This resulted in a rapid substitution with Max Watters sacrificed for Jonathan Bland. Blues carved out a number of good chances which were squandered as has been the case so often this season. Kieran Dowell’s free kick passed just the wrong side of the post following the sending off, Ethan Laird, Keshi Anderson and Tomoki Iwata all had good chances to score but failed to get their efforts on target and despite being a man short, Barnsley showed enterprise forcing Allsop to earn his corn on at least two occasions. Jay Stansfield had a great chance to add to his tally this season when put through by Dowell, he rounded the keeper but was thwarted by returning ex-Blues player Marc Roberts just as the young striker was about to prod home. Blues should have been ahead with the chances they created and it was not until a challenge by Barnsley keeper, Kieran Flavell on Keshi Anderson which resulted in a penalty did the home side take the lead. Stansfield dispatched a low right footed shot into Flavell’s bottom right hand corner for 1-0.
The relief in the home crowd was tangible and it was not unreasonable to suppose that Birmingham would take total control of the game and go on and win the match comfortably. There is an old saying that a team is at its most vulnerable when they have just scored and barely two minutes after taking the lead Blues conceded a dreadful equaliser. Marc Roberts took a throw in on the Kop side. In the four seasons Roberts played for us, he took countless long throws which on only one occasion did we score. His throw looped across our box to Conor McCarthy who had far too much room to head back across the six yard box from the near post where Davis Keillor-Dunn was on hand at the far stick to gleefully head in from four yards. It was execrable defending and about as bad as Bristol Rovers equaliser on Tuesday and it resulted in the hook for Willumsson who lost the initial challenge at the near post. At the break it was all square when Blues should have been winning. The performance was not good enough from a number of stand points; build up too slow, not moving the ball quick enough, wasting good chances and field position and then there was that goal. It was to be hoped that Chris Davies would apply the hairdryer treatment and tell a few of them that if they had any designs on being considered for selection at Wembley next week then they had better buck up their ideas!
Clearly, whatever was said in the dressing room, it had a galvanising effect. With barely a minute of the restart, a corner to Blues was whipped in and headed back across from Klarer to his defensive partner, Ben Davies who shot back into goal. From where I was , I thought his effort had been blocked and Alfie May swivelled on the loose ball to bury the chance from close range. However, it now appears the goal was actually the property of Ben Davies. Presumably it was already over the line. A third Blues goal was to follow on 55 minutes when after good build up play down the left an exquisite cross from the left by Alex Cochrane was headed into the far corner by Alfie May. 3-1 and St Andrew’s was in full voice but once again our rearguard were caught sleeping as Adam Phillips fed the ball through the inside right channel for Stephen Humphrys to hit a fierce drive from a narrow angle. Uncharacteristically, Ryan Allsop only partially saved and the ball squirmed under his body to let Barnsley back into the game. Allsop will feel he should have done better I suspect but the defending leading up to his shot was poor.
3-2 and it was game on. However, Barnsley, down to ten men for virtually the whole game were visibly beginning to tire and on 72 minutes fatigue took its toll when following a fast break, Alfie May slipped the ball to Luke Harris 25 yards out. The latter took a touch and unleashed a low unstoppable drive into the bottom far corner. Barnsley were looking a beaten side at this point. A fifth goal which would have been goal of the season nearly occurred on 80 minutes when turning inside Jay Stansfield hit a scorching shot across the keeper from the corner of the box which cannoned off the foot of the post. Within seconds, Alfie May should have had his second goal when clean through his left footed effort from about ten yards was dispatched high and wide. In a breathless couple of minutes a fifth goal did arrive from Kieran Dowell when fed a pass 25 yards out by Alfie May, the midfielder took a fine touch before burying a left footed shot past the despairing Flavell. On came Lukas Jutkiewicz for the final few minutes and the most popular strike of the afternoon followed. The big man found himself through on goal and his left footed shot was initially saved by Flavell but Jukey adjusted well and tapped the rebound into the roof of the net to send the St Andrew’s faithful delirious.
Two more points and promotion back to the Championship is guaranteed.
The Good: The second half performance. Far better than the first half which was festooned with missed chances.
The Bad: The goals we conceded. The first was lamentable defending and far too easy, the second was poor defending combined with an uncharacteristic goalkeeping error from Ryan Allsop.
The Ugly: Nothing to report here. Eight goals in a match played in bright spring sunshine. What is there not to love?
I decided not to allocate scores to the players this week. Barnsley were down to ten men for virtually the whole game and Blues ran out convincing winners and it would be all too easy to get carried away awarding high scores to our players and low ones to those of our opponents. This would not be representative or fair. The fact is that despite the scoreline, Barnsley did not play badly. On the contrary they could easily have had a couple more goals and Allsop was called upon to make at least two decent saves. The Tykes still managed 8 shots, 6 of which were on target and in my opinion they were one of the better sides that we have faced this season. They were still in the game at 3-2 and they just ran out of steam in the last 20 minutes which is understandable. For our part, better finishing in the first half and we could have had more goals too. Des suggested it could have been 10-4 and he was right. Finally, I would say that Alfie May was man of the match. A goal and two assists he made a major difference to proceedings.
Birmingham City: Ryan Allsop, Ethan Laird (Alfons Sampsted 67) Ben Davies, Christoph Klarer, Alex Cochrane, Willum Willumsson (Alfie May 37) Paik Seeing-ho (Marc Leonard) Tomoki Iwata, Kieran Dowell, Keshi Anderson (Luke Harris 67) JayStansfield (Lukas Jutkiewicz 83)
Subs not used: Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Grant Hanley.
Goals: Stansfield 33 (pen) Davies 47, May 55, Luke Harris 72, Dowell 82, Jutkiewicz 89.
Yellow cards: Klarer 54
Barnsley: Kieran Flavell, Mael de Gevigney (so 3) Marc Roberts, Conor McCarthy, Adam Phillips (Fabio Jalo 72) Luca Connell (Kelechi Nwakali 87) Jon Russell, Corey O’Keeffe (Dexter Lembikisa 86) Stephen Humphrys (Jonathan Lewis 86) Max Watters (Jonathan Bland 8) Davis Keillor-Dunn
Subs not used: Adam Hayton, Connor Barratt.
Yellow cards Bland 72
Red card: de Gevigney 3
Referee: Sam Purkiss: I thought Mr Purkiss had a good game. He got the major decisions right. Whilst it is a pity to have players dismissed from the field of play especially after only 3 minutes, the decision was correct as was the penalty call even though Keshi Anderson made a meal of it.
Attendance: 25,018
Bazza KRO
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