At last, the start of the season has arrived! Much as I hate it when we have to play on a Friday evening, I was excited as well as a little apprehensive. The bookies, if you are a believer in such charlatans, would have everyone believe that Blues and the Tractor Boys are joint favourites for the title, let alone promotion before a ball has even been kicked! We will see I suppose but there is no doubt that Ipswich are going to be one of the better sides in the Championship and are clearly not to be taken lightly. It promised for a tough game but the advantage of playing the early favourites is that Chris Davies should have no trouble instilling into our players that they need to be at it from the starting whistle.
Will suggested that we should set off early to get up to Brum with a view to taking in a couple of pints and partake of a curry before getting up to the ground for the pre-match entertainment. With all this in mind, Will picked me up at the Meadows shopping centre near Camberley at 13.45 accompanied by his mate Alex who was making use of a spare ticket. We made good time up the M40, arriving in Birmingham about four. On the way we called in at Baginton to pick up Jack. Chris, little Will and Seb are all in France on holiday. Who would have thought it? First day of the season and they go off abroad! Some people; whatever happened to priorities and matters of great import?
We headed for the Selly Park Tavern and imbibed a couple of refreshing scoops before heading for the curry house, the Balti Bazaar on the Pershore Road. We beamed up an Uber after that and got dropped off near the ground and walked up. Another pint and we were ready to go up to our seats. There was a bit of a problem in getting in for Will as his ticket in his Google wallet wasn’t triggering the turnstile and he had the nausea of having to stand in the queue at the ticket office as he wasn’t the only one. Whilst I have an electronic ticket, being a bit of a dinosaur, I always have my hard copy ticket with me as back up and so got in no trouble. We eventually were a quorum and experienced the crackling atmosphere with the razzmatazz that we’ve come to expect with the fireworks and Mr BlueSky belting out. Our usual announcer was back (Thank the Lord?) and after a loud rendering of Sir Harry Lauder’s “Keep Right On to the End of the Road!” we were ready to start the game. Interestingly, the visitors, I suspect, opted to make us kick towards the Tilton first half. In recent years we have always opted to play that way in the second half. However, it’s not unprecedented because I remember when I first started going in the 1960s Blues always played towards what is now the Gil Merrick stand in the second period. Personally, I don’t think it matters all that much and in a strange way may be an advantage because the visitors will be playing away from their supporters second half.
The match started brightly and Blues played some lovely stuff in the first period completely dominating their lofty opponents. Blues were all over Ipswich who were finding it hard to cope with the high intensity press. The lads should have been ahead after only eight minutes when Kyogo jumping with the much bigger centre half landed to find the ball just in front of him with the bounce invitingly calling for an attempted lob which the Japanese international executed with aplomb. Lovely finish over Palmer in the Ipswich goal. The referee deemed that Kyogo had fouled the defender and chalked it off. Now I’ve reviewed this footage and if that’s a foul, then games are going to be stopped every thirty seconds. This referee gave 22 fouls against Ipswich and 16 against Blues and frankly, it wasn’t a dirty game! Blues carved out a number of chances. Kyogo fired into the side netting following a neat reverse pass from Jay Stansfield. Jay, himself could have done better with a shot from sixteen yards that he put over the bar and another chance from a similar area that he snatched at and put wide. The only scare for Blues was a misplaced pass from Ryan Allsop straight into the path of Sammie Szmodics who thankfully fired wide of the far post. Despite battering the opposition the opener would not come and I reckon Ipswich were delighted to hear the whistle for half time. A pint at half time in the Box to Box was taken and it was soon time for the second half.
Blues carried on from where they left off and finally on 55 minutes a goal that was greeted by a full throated St Andrew’s roar came. A clearance by the Ipswich keeper was headed back from midfield by Bright Osayi-Samuel into the inside right channel where running onto it, Kyogo Furuhashi got to the ball first and chipped the keeper. His delightful finish rebounded off the post however but fortunately to Jay Stansfield following up who side footed a difficult bouncing ball into the roof of the net for a thoroughly deserved lead.
Ipswich at this point clearly had to change their game plan and started to play a bit more rather than slow the tempo. They had more of the play but didn’t really make a lot of inroads in open play. They continued to win their fair share of cheap free kicks but Blues defended resolutely and as 90 minutes ticked by 8 minutes of time added on were announced. With three gone Ipswich won a corner which at the time could have been left for a goal kick. As the ball was delivered to the far post there appeared to be a challenge in the air and the ball flicked away to safety. The referee blew his whistle for what I thought was a free kick only to realise he’d awarded a penalty. This decision was controversial and it was deemed handball against substitute, Lyndon Dykes. I couldn’t see from my vantage point but many felt it was a very soft award. My brother Trevor watching from America said that if VAR had been in place, the decision stands, if he hadn’t given it, that decision stands so you pays your money and you take your choice. George Hirst slammed the spot kick down the middle sending the diving Allsop the wrong way for 1-1. They didn’t deserve it but there you go. We won’t have to play Ipswich who are arguably the best team in the division every week and providing we can play like this consistently for the campaign; it’s going to be an exciting and enjoyable season. Well done Blues.
The Good: The performance. It was excellent and promises more to come.
The Bad: The refereeing; it was truly awful. I believe Mr Kitchen’s performance cost us two points.
The Ugly: Conor Chaplin thundering the ball into the Tilton crowd after the penalty kick, the melee that results from the incensed Blues players and the supporter who started getting involved with the celebrating Ipswich players. There was absolutely no need for any of it and it is to be wholly condemned.
Birmingham City: Ryan Allsop 7, Bright Osayi-Samuel 7 Christoph Klarer 8, Phil Neumann 8 (Eiran Cashin 57) Alex Cochrane 7, Tomoki Iwata 8, Paik Seung-ho 8, Demarai Gray 7 (Ethan Laird 83, N/A) Keshi Anderson 7 (Taylor Gardner-Hickman 89, N/A) Jay Stansfield 8 (Lyndon Dykes 83, N/A) Kyogo Furuhashi 9 (Tommy Doyle 77, 7)
Subs not used: James Beadle, Krystian Bielik, Marc Leonard, Willum Willumsson, Eiran Cashin.
Goals: Stansfield 55.
Yellow cards: Osayi-Samuel 19, Seung-ho 71
Ipswich Town: Alex Palmer 7, Ben Johnson 6 (Ashley Young 68, 7) Dara O’Shea 7, Jacob Greaves 8, Leif Davies 6, Chiedozie Ogbene 6 (Nathan Broadhead 68, 7) Azor Matusiwa 6 (Cameron Humphreys 85, N/A) Jack Clarke 5 (Ali Al-Hamadi 79, 6) Sammie Szmodics 6 (Conor Chaplin 68, 6) George Hirst 7,
Subs not used: Christian Walton, Cedric Kipre, Luke Woolfenden,
Goals: Hirst (pen) 90+3.
Yellow cards: Taylor 19, Matusiwa 44, Chaplin 90+6
Referee: Andrew Kitchen: 3; The referee had a mare. He should have booked a couple of the visitors early on for repeated infringements to break up the home side’s momentum to gain control of the game which in my opinion he lost as a result of inaction. By the time he did book two players after 19 minutes, one from each side the chance to gain a grip on the match had gone. There were far too many innocuous challenges hauled up for free kicks that weren’t and too many perfectly good solid tackles penalised to the increasing frustration of players from both sides and the crowd. The worst decision was for Kyogo’s disallowed goal. If Blues score then, it’s a different game and one I believe they would have won. I hope we don’t get this referee for a long time to come. It’s inconceivable that we won’t encounter him again.
Attendance: 27,508
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