View from the South – Birmingham City v Plymouth Argyle FAC 3rd Rd 2021/22

Even after 58 years of following Blues, I still get a buzz of excitement when 3rd Round FA Cup day comes around each year. In the past, dreams of a decent Cup run were very real, presently, not so but it doesn’t dull the anticipation nevertheless. Our group tend to push the boat out if we get a home draw and go for a little hospitality and Chris had organised a table for ten in the Jasper Carrott suite in the Kop stand with seats for the game in the directors box. The late kick off dictated that we didn’t need to leave until about 1.30 pm and Will arranged to pick me and my eldest son, Jonny up from Guildford station which we reached at twenty to two.

The weather was inclement to say the least and all the idiots were out driving like Lewis Hamilton without the skill and there were at least three cars in ditches, flipped or just trashed at intervals up the M40. Despite the hold ups, Will did well with good detour knowledge and controlled speed to reach the main car park outside St Andrew’s at four o’clock. Will, Jonny, little Will and yours truly then proceeded upstairs to the suite to join the other six in our party comprising of Chris, little Jack, his little brother Seb, friends, Mark, Martin and Rob. A welcome beer awaited us along with some poppadoms and mango chutney before a main course of chicken balti, rice, tarka dhal and naan bread followed by passion fruit cheesecake slice with coconut ice cream which I have to say was gorgeous.

I’d spoken to Chris earlier in the day and I could tell that he was also excited by the prospect of the day. He said that he didn’t expect much from the game to which I replied that it would probably be a 5-4 thriller but which Chris retorted; “No! It’ll be be a 1-0 either way!” It was to prove prophetic. In the Jasper Carrott suite the guests of honour were Dele Adebola and Paul Devlin.

It was nice to hear their reminiscences but it was telling that Dele diplomatically sidestepped the question from the MC as to how he saw the present Blues squad. I talked to him briefly when he came over to our table for a group photograph and in all honesty he said it was almost impossible to answer the question in the circumstances the club presently found itself. The playing staff in terms of quality and depth is clearly not good enough but he agreed with me that compared to 12 months ago we are better than we were and the best we can hope for at the moment is gradual improvement year on year. Dele has watched a lot of games in the last couple of years working with Blues TV and I reckon his assessment is fair. It was good to see him and Paul Devlin and we were all grateful for their time.

It was soon time to take our padded seats in the directors’ box. Neil Etheridge was in goal, perforce by the unfortunate injury to Sarkic, Maxime Colin, new loan signing, Teden Mengi, Krystian Pedersen and George Friend made up the defensive rearguard. Ryan Woods, Gary Gardner and youngsters Jordan James and Tate Campbell occupied midfield with Scott Hogan and captain, Troy Deeney up front. On paper, whilst not the strongest eleven Blues could put out, there was plenty there to make a decent fist of it. There was certainly enough experience and quality to take on a side from the division below us. The fact is they didn’t!

I will not dwell too much on this game especially the first half as it was bilge. The play from our lot was slow, ponderous, inaccurate, sloppy, lacking tempo and downright crap. Plymouth for their part made life very difficult. They placed nine men in front of the ball when they defended which they did resolutely and broke with pace when they attacked. They kept things tight but when Blues did summon up the effort to press and do things properly the visitors could be forced into mistakes but there simply wasn’t enough of that kind of industry especially in midfield where we lacked control with poor passing and zero invention. The two up front hardly helped by failing to hold it up when they got and I can hardly remember Deeney winning a headed challenge and Hogan was a ghost. Plymouth to my mind had the better of a poor quality game in the first half and with more composure in the final third could easily have gone in at least in front as Blues tried their best to shoot themselves in the foot.

A pint at half time back upstairs was welcome followed by a comfort break and it was back out for the second half. Any hopes of an improvement from Blues from their lamentable first half display were soon dashed as the game settled back into the pattern of the first period. We hardly laid a glove on the opposition and you could tell that the men from Devon fancied their chances as their breakaway attacks became more frequent and menacing.

Any doubts that Plymouth were the better side in the first half were totally dispelled in the second half but I hoped that come 70 minutes or so that the game would open up and our better quality players would finally show it. That was until George Friend stupidly got himself sent off for two yellow cards. The first on 59 minutes was a brainless push on a Plymouth player just about to take a throw in, which had resulted from Friend himself getting pushed into the ball as it travelled towards the sideline. I think it probably was a foul but to react and take out your frustration by pushing your opponent in the back left Rebecca Welch, the referee with no choice but to brandish the yellow card. Ten minutes later an appalling haymaking swipe pretending to be a tackle plus deliberate hand ball thrown in resulted in an early bath.

Down to ten men against a team sensing blood meant that inevitably Plymouth would score sooner rather than later. The fact that they didn’t was down to poor finishing, last ditch defending, excellent goalkeeping from Etheridge and plain old fashioned, bloody good fortune! Garrick should have scored at least twice but was denied by two excellent stops by Etheridge and Ennis was unlucky not to score when having beaten our keeper the ball cannoned off the foot of the near post. The game limped to full time 0-0 when in truth Plymouth should have won at a canter.

The best Blues could hope for was to negotiate the extra time and go to penalties for a pyrrhic victory that they would scarcely deserve. The inevitable finally arrived on 104 minutes with a cracking strike from 20 yards by substitute, Ryan Law. Plymouth were using the extra space of afforded them by Friend’s absence and a diagonal ball out to him on the left flank, left the wide man in acres of space to run at our rearguard. Although, Maxime Colin confronted him  he failed to get tight enough and backed off too far. From the edge of the box a fierce left-footed drive arrowed into the far corner which left Etheridge rooted to the spot. A funny thing happened just before the goal.

The announcer said that the last train to Plymouth was twelve minutes past eight! It was 7.30 pm at this stage. There was no mass exodus so some must have called in favours from those driving or decided to find somewhere to stay. (Kev edit, I was listening to Radio Devon commentary, they found the announcement hysterical! I did hope that the Argyle players would be panicked into leaving early – however we still would have conspired to lose against ourselves!)

The goal was no more than the visitors deserved and the large contingent from the South West erupted in rapturous celebration. The game was up and frankly the referee may as well have ended the game there. Blues never looked like salvaging the situation and appeared resigned to their fate. This was a truly dismal performance with the only notable efforts coming from Neil Etheridge and youngsters Teden Mengi, Jordan James, Tate Campbell and Jobe Bellingham when he came on. The rest of them need to take a long hard look in the mirror this morning. Plymouth thoroughly deserved their win as they clearly wanted it far more than Blues who were out thought, out run, out passed and out played. Well done Argyle; I hope their fans got back safely somehow.

The Good: The day generally. Good food, a few drinks, convivial company. Chris summed it up when he said; “It’s been a great day spoiled by a game of football!”

The Bad: The match; it was shocking. Blues got out of the match what they put into it; nothing! Not a single attempt on target! Plymouth had 22 attempts, 6 on target.

The Ugly: The challenge that got Friend his walk of shame. It was appalling and rightly received the ultimate sanction.

Birmingham City: Neil Etheridge 7, Maxime Colin 5 (Josh Williams 106, 5) Teden Mengi 6, George Friend 3, Krystian Pedersen 4, Tate Campbell 6, Ryan Woods 3 (Ivan Sunjic 90+ 5, 6) Jordan James 5 (Jobe Bellingham 70, 6) Gary Gardner 4 (Alfie Chang 106, 5) Troy Deeney 4, Scott Hogan 4 (Chuks Aneke 88, 6)

Subs not used: Connal Trueman, Juan Familia Castillo, Remi Walker, Mitchell Roberts.

Goals: None

Bookings: Woods 28, Friend 58, 69 (sent off) Aneke 90 + 6.

Plymouth Argyle: Mike Cooper 6, James Bolton 6, Macaulay Gillesphey 6, Jordan Houghton 7, Dan Scarr 7, Joe Edwards 7, Ryan Hardie 6 (Niall Ennis 53, 7) Danny Mayer 7, Jordan Carrick 7 (Jordan Garrick 119, N/A) Conor Grant 6, Adam Randell 7 (Ryan Law 97, 7)

Subs not used: Callum Burton, Alfie Lewis, Brandon Pursall, Carlo Garside, Rhys Shirley, Freddie Issaka.

Referee: Rebecca Welch 8; I agree with Chris that this official was arguably the best referee we’ve seen at St Andrew’s all season. The mark of a good referee is when you hardly notice that they are there. The only time she became prominent was when she had no choice but to dismiss George Friend. Both yellow card decisions were absolutely spot on. The referee had an excellent game; she was fair, decisive in an unfussy way, kept the game flowing when appropriate and kept up with play. If this is an example of female referees, let’s have more of them.

Attendance: 9,823 (at least 3,000 Plymouth fans who were noisy and backed their team throughout)

Bazza KRO