May I start by hoping that every single Blues fan reading this had a very Merry Christmas and I’m sure like many will look forward to better things in the New Year. With those preliminaries over, as a departure from my normal report, I thought I would reflect a little on how the season has gone so far; especially more recent times where our form has taken a noticeable dip resulting in us being in an unenviable position of 15th and mid table mediocrity. We have of course very ambitious owners who have made no secret of the fact that they wish for us to be in the Premier League sooner rather than later. These lofty ambitions are laudable however, it has to be tempered with the fact that you have to have a squad capable of getting you there and having achieved top tier status keeping you in the division.
Since the appointment of our young manager, Chris Davies, things have gone very brightly for us following the relegation from the Championship that occurred the year before last. We did of course take the League 1 title by storm and cantered to a record 111 points in the process. A busy summer in the transfer market saw several new faces come into the building and there was much optimism about how we would do this season. I for one felt that a finish in mid table perhaps 10th or slightly above would represent a good season for us. The graph for which I acknowledge Jacob Bassett at Sussex Blues OSC suggests I’m not far off in my prediction.
However, dissenting voices have suggested that we should be in the play-offs and vying for promotion. Our early endeavours in the season gave calls for such optimism in that we played Ipswich Town, a team just relegated from the Premiership, off the park in the first game only to disappointingly be denied a deserved victory by a penalty that I felt was harshly given at the time.
The team got off to a very good start nevertheless, even winning our first away game at Blackburn having gone behind. Our home form has been impressive given that we have only lost one game in this calendar year to Hull City 3-2 in a game where I can honestly say we did not play up to our normal standards. We then went on a run of home games brushing all who came aside whilst scoring goals for fun. Form away from St Andrews has been a particular concern however. We have not managed to garner enough points to suggest that we will be serious playoff contenders. The win at Preston along with a couple of draws is all we have to show for half a season’s work and the problem with not picking up points away from home is that it puts enormous pressure on your home form however good that may be. Sooner or later it is inevitable that points will be dropped on home turf and that has proved to be the case more recently which brings me swiftly onto the last half a dozen games. We went to Southampton, last night’s opponents and were comprehensively dispatched 3-1. Our defending was poor and particular reference has to focus on the goalkeeper, James Beadle. He was culpable for two of the goals conceded. Make no mistake, Saints were the better team that day but there is no excuse for powderpuff defending, failure to track runners, lack of pressure on the ball and switching off ball-watching at vital moments. They are too good a side to be gifting them goals. Our visit to QPR was worse. Whilst Saints are a decent outfit and I can take defeat against them, losing to QPR is a different matter. What looked to be a hard earned point was squandered by lack of pressure on the ball allowing a shot to come in from 25 yards which combined with Beadle’s glass wrists resulted in a 2-1 defeat in the 97th minute. Awful defending, awful performance against a mediocre side.
Next away game was Sheffield United; one down after five minutes, down to ten men after 18 minutes and 2-0 not long after meant we weren’t getting anything out of that game either. The concession of a third early in the second half meant it was damage limitation only. Meanwhile, with home games against Charlton and Derby resulting in very disappointing 1-1 draws in games that could and should have been won, we now find ourselves after last night’s 1-1 draw against Southampton with a record of 3 points out of the last 18. Some are calling for a change of manager. My mate, Will has very strong views on the matter. His contention is that given the players we have, we should be doing better than we are and CD is failing to get the best out of them. Moreover, he feels some of the tactical decision making is questionable. Others feel that he should be backed with further transfer activity in the January window to allow to plug obvious gaps such as left back cover and in the striking department given how unproductive Kyogo, Duksch and Dykes have been over nearly half a season. Kyogo in particular has been profligate with the chances afforded to him and cannot seem to buy a goal at present. I’m fairly neutral at the moment but this run of poor form can’t go on if Chris Davies is to keep his job. On a final footnote concerning CD, Will feels that you need a manager who has experience getting teams out of this division such as Russell Martin.
So, onto the present. It was a cold night and I made sure I was wearing plenty of layers. Will and little Will picked me up in Guildford at 3 pm as we aimed to get up to Birmingham for an early curry before the game. We were joined by Chris, Seb and Emma (Chris’ daughter and Seb’s mum). Jack was unable to come on this occasion. We caught a train in to Bordesley station and walked up to the ground. The atmosphere was excellent as ever under the lights at St Andrew’s. The kick off was later however due to the vagaries of television which meant it was going to be a late journey back. I’m not going to go into detail about this game as many will by now have seen the highlights if you weren’t actually there. Blues started brightly and pressed well to subdue Southampton and the only thing missing was a goal. Towards the end of the half Saints began to gain control denied them previously and although both teams had moments, it was goalless at the break.
At the start of the second half, Beadle was called upon to make a smart stop to prevent Blues going behind which was just as well because a minute or so later the home side took the lead. From a corner, Jack Robinson did well to hook the far post delivery back across the six yard box. A series of head tennis occurred culminating in Phil Neumann’s header looping over Bazunu who could only tip it onto the underside of the bar and in! Blues then held a compact line and could so easily have doubled their lead when Jay Stansfield’s thirty yard shot was tipped onto the post by Bazunu. For the third game running at home we hit the woodwork twice in the game; things are not going our way just at present! Just think how handy those six points would be right now instead of rebounding off the goal frame? We did have other chances: notably Kyogo lobbing over the keeper and unfortunately, the bar when one on one.
Inevitably, when you don’t take your chances, things happen which curtail your efforts. A controversial equaliser came about as Tomoki Iwata went for a ball in midfield only to collide with the referee. Many in the ground thought that the game should be stopped and recommenced with a drop ball. I didn’t know this but unless the ball itself hits the official, he isn’t obliged to stop play. The net result is Saints got it, fed it down their right flank, we failed to stop the cross and substitute, Cameron Archer nipped across his marker and guided his finish into the far corner. There was a cacophony of boos that greeted this but we can dress this up any which way we like, yes it was unfortunate that Saints got the ball in a dangerous position because of the referee getting in the way but the law states that he is part of the pitch and he was therefore correct to allow play to continue. Remember at school, play to the whistle? We didn’t defend properly subsequently and against a good side at this level you will be punished and we were.
In the end it was another 1-1 draw at home. We were unfortunate again to rattle the woodwork twice in the game but over the whole piece, I thought Saints deserved their point whereas Charlton and Derby both mugged us but that’s football, it ain’t always fair.
The Good: The early periods in both halves. I felt we lost control after 20 minutes or so in each period. The players stayed focused despite the incident leading to Southampton’s leveller. We didn’t allow it to disrupt us and then go on and lose the game.
The Bad: Chris Davies getting himself sent off. It was needless and like many, myself included, he was clearly wrong about the law interpretation. Unfortunately, the referee was right and the resulting equaliser was the result of our own shortcomings. Our disciplinary record is appalling with more red cards this season than I can ever remember given that we’re not half way through yet. How can CD address this when the players see him getting red cards himself?
The Ugly: A Southampton fan came out of the ground and returned to find his car as shown in the picture. Just what are West Midlands Police doing about this disgusting practice?
(note from Russ here, I was at the most recent Fans’ Event and Tom Wagner himself said he’d had reassurance from WMP that there would be increased presence from PCs on match days so this really isn’t acceptable for home or away fans).
Southampton: Gavin Bazunu 7, Nathan Wood 6, Taylor Harwood-Bellis 6, Jack Stephens 7, Finn Azaz 6 (Kuryu Matsuki 83, N/A), Casper Jander 7 (Cameron Bragg 68, 7), Tom Fellows 6 (Elias Jelert 58, 7), Flynn Downes 7, Ryan Manning 6, Jay Robinson 6 (Leo Scieza 58, 7), Adam Armstrong 6 (Cameron Archer 68, 7).
Subs not used: Alex McCarthy, Joshua Quarshie, Joe Aribo, Welington Santos.
Goals: Archer 71.
Yellow cards: Wood 41, Jander 49.
Birmingham City: James Beadle 7, Alfons Sampsted 7, Phil Neumann 8, Jack Robinson 7, Eiran Cashin 6, Tomoki Iwata 7, Paik Seung-ho 8, Patrick Roberts 7 (Marc Leonard 82, N/A), Willum Willumsson 6, Jay Stansfield 7 (Lewis Koumas 69, 6), Kyogo Furuhashi 7 (Marvin Ducksch 69, 6).
Subs not used: Ryan Allsop, Billy Burrell, Menzi Mazwi, Kanya Fujimoto, Dan Isichei, Lyndon Dykes.
Goals: Neumann 49.
Yellow cards: Neumann 72.
Referee: Matthew Donohue: 7; It is the easiest thing in the world to blame the referee for our team’s latest failure to win but I’m not going to. On reflection he officiated the game even handedly and whilst he was in Tomoki Iwata’s way at the vital moment, there is no law that says any of the other 21 players and one referee have to move over when you are running. It was accidental and unintended and as I’ve alluded to above within the laws of the game to allow play to proceed. It’s tough on us but there you go.
Attendance: 27,895
Bazza KRO
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