Like the addicted fool that I am I proceeded towards Birmingham from my home in Surrey believing that Blues could not get any worse than the last three matches which I was present for. It couldn’t get any worse could it?

I had my youngest son with me (now 17) who whilst not exactly reluctant to make the journey, still had the home game against Blackpool fresh in his memory. He thought we were absolute dross that day and he is of course so right but I assured him it was nowhere near as bad a performance as our home encounter against Norwich City two seasons ago. He looked at me incredulously as if to say ‘you’ve got to be joking right?’

On the subject of the season so far, given that joys and sorrows is back (to resounding cheers to that as loud as us scoring a goal) I am yet to see our beloved team play anywhere near their potential apart from short bursts. The first half display against Bristol City at their place and the home game against a hapless Sheffield Wednesday defence apart the form has been fair to middling at best interspersed with some absolute rubbish. It is commendable that despite being under par for the most part we find ourselves in second place in the league.

Enough of this, back to the game; we arrived at the ground, got in, pie and a pint and took our seats. Thirteen minutes in and a beautifully executed goal from McFadden lifted the apprehension from the St Andrews faithful. A very classy finish when the obvious ball out wide would have been so much simpler. Charlton have been struggling this season and are unlikely to pull up trees enough to suggest that they will feature in the promotion mix come May. However, as we all know, Birmingham has a perennial inability to beat the sides they should beat on a consistent basis.

A complete cock up at a free kick just outside their area resulted in a pacy counterattack from the visitors resulting in a beautifully taken goal from Bouazza. Excellent first touch and a bullet shot into the top corner of the Tilton Road net for 1 – 1. We got caught napping and left exposed with a three on two which I have to say was unusual from our normally resilient defensive unit. The starting line up we had with no Jerome and Quincy for the second match running exposed our lack of pace and mobility all too graphically.

That was bad enough but the demons that haunt Ridgewell were back as he got caught under a big hoof down the middle, took the wrong option by waving a hopeful boot at the ball as it bounced past him allowing Andy Gray to smack the ball across Taylor from 20 yards for another excellent finish. This was exactly the sort of problem we encountered time and again in the Premier League last season. The difference being that the forwards in the league above punished us every time as apposed to now and again. Once again we were losing to an inferior side.

At least the half time interval seemed to galvanise the troops but it could have been worse when Sam struck the post early in the second period. 3 – 1 and I truly believe there would have been no way back. Fortunately, we appear to not be the only ones to make serious defensive errors. We received a gift of a goal when Weaver in the Charlton goal slipped just before taking a routine catch and ended up on his knees. He played patter cake with the ball onto the head of the predatory Kevin Phillips who coolly allowed the ball to dink off his head over the genuflected keeper into the net for 2 – 2.

After that we looked likely to score again which we did in rapid fashion through Franck Queudrue who pounced on another ricket in the Charlton defence from a corner. Queudrue has been our best player over the last month or so in my view and I was delighted for him to score. Now Blues never do anything easily and instead of going on to bury our opponents who were now rattled and all over the place, Quashie lunges in on Sam and gets himself a second yellow card with half an hour still left.

He had had a decent game until then but was lucky to be on the pitch when following a nasty challenge in the first half from Sam, Quashie reacted angrily knocking his opponent to the ground with his chest. I think it was only because he didn’t raise his hands or make aggressive gestures with his forehead that the referee took such a lenient view. I am sure however that if Messrs Styles or Bennett had been in the middle it would have been a straight red. Interestingly, my son said at half time that Quashie should be substituted for his own good but to be fair he did contribute to both our second half goals so I suppose you can’t have it all ways.

Blues hung on for the win which I am of course pleased about but I have a couple of observations regarding our season so far; our problems occur when we fail to dictate the pace of the game by not pressing the ball and we look so much better when we get it on the floor and pass it about with a decent tempo. When we hoof it down the middle to Bent or down the channels we become just like any other team in the division. Whenever I’ve seen glimpses of good form from Blues it has been because of these two factors.

A top quality craftsman in midfield would not go amiss but nearly every team needs one or two of them but January will be upon us and there is no reason not to add to the squad in this area if such a player is available. Another quality centre half is needed too but I’ve felt that for the last 18 months. I hope and pray that Blues will learn the lessons of this recent slump. It is no use being the best team in the division on paper. There is no substitute for hard work and just recently that aspect of the game has been wanting. The only difference on Saturday between the first and second periods was work rate. It needs to be at a high level for 90 minutes not 45.

KRO, SOTV.