I have found this one of the most difficult reports to write because of the manner of the defeat more than anything. To say that I’m upset, frustrated and angry is not overstating things. However, I have never been as proud to be a Blues fan as I feel right now. Blues were cruelly denied what was rightfully theirs by the fickle Gods of football. We have all enjoyed last gasp winners in games where we have perhaps not necessarily deserved the spoils and there will be a number of Spurs fans this morning who, if they are honest with themselves, will realise that their team ‘got out of jail’ yesterday; a phrase I overheard as I left the ground after the game spoken by a Spurs fan; “Aw wight dawlin?” He knew, as all the blue faithful who were there knew, that Birmingham had deserved a draw and were done in the final seconds of the 95th minute by an unfortunate error by returning Spur, Stephen Carr when he trod on the ball near the half way line allowing Huddleston to dispossess him and play the ball to Pavlyuchenko whose square ball across the edge of the area was picked up by Aaron Lennon who jinked inside two defenders to place a low drive into Joe Hart’s bottom right hand corner. Life is unfair sometimes and this was a clear example of it.
Blues set up 4-5-1 with O’Connor as the lone striker. I met a fellow bluenose on the station who was adamant that Benitez should start in this role. I tried to suggest that this would be a waste of a very good player to have him racing around after lost causes sapping his energy so that there was nothing left in the final twenty minutes when he can terrorize tired defenders. “Well he’s a young man” came the retort. I think some of us simply fail to understand how much these top players take out of themselves in high level sport. You only have to cast your mind back to interviews with Thierry Henry when playing for Arsenal. The interview would be 5 – 10 minutes after the game and the guy was still out of breath. This is because he was still paying back the oxygen debt to his muscles and the same goes for a lot of the top players. I do not think Benitez is suited for a lone striker role. When I suggested this I was told “well he did it at Southampton!” Yes indeed he did but it was only when O’Connor joined him from the bench and gave him some support that Blues stated to look effective. Prior to that Saints had controlled the game. “We’ll have to agree to differ” said the man. Yes we will; football is all about differing opinions isn’t it?
Speaking of opinions, I read a totally partisan and wholly biased report on one of the Spurs blogs which stated that the home side had 80% possession in the first half. He must have been watching a different game to the one I attended. Read this tosh for yourselves; http://www.planetspurs.com/news/fullnews/407/Tottenham-Hotspur-2—1-Birmingham-City—Review.php It was nearer 60-40 but you would expect that from the home side with the wonderful free flowing attacking options at their disposal. Spurs had their moments no doubt; Lennon’s goal bound effort at the far post when Modric had got in behind us was well blocked by Carr and Defoe was a whisker away from connecting to a superb pass from Huddleston. However, Blues had chances too notably the two that fell to Larsson from similar positions. The resulting cross shots brought an excellent save out of Cudicini and the other took the paint off the far post. Larsson should have scored with the latter chance I felt. 0 – 0 at half time was a fair reflection of the play. Blues had defended stoutly, looked well organised and solid.
The second half brought the early substitution of Modric by Crouch. I was sorry to read this morning that Modric has fractured his fibula and will be out for six weeks. He sustained the injury in a lunge on Bowyer which resulted in a free kick to Blues. Crouch gave us problems from the outset. He had three headers in the space of fifteen minutes; one which hit the bar, one which was cleared off the line by Carsley and the third which looped over Hart into the far corner of the net on 72 minutes. I had said prior to the game that if we could keep it 0 – 0 for 70 minutes we would have a chance. I didn’t mean concede at that point! Benitez came on for Carsley and made an immediate impact. Within three minutes he was chasing onto a ball that Hutton who had replaced the injured King, was trying to shepherd back to his keeper. They got in a right royal mix up and the ball fell to Bowyer who scored from four yards. The final 15 minutes was all Blues with excellent ball retention and pressure on the ball. O’Connor and Johnson both missed good chances to put us ahead and these missed opportunities were to come back to haunt us. Spurs if anything were clinging on in stoppage time and then Carr trod on the ball!
Watching Match of the Day last night you would have thought that there was only one team in it. The bias towards the top clubs is becoming sickening. Mark Lawrenson is really getting up my nose of late; not only has he dismissed us out of hand to survive this season but he said that Spurs could have had a hatful of goals! Birmingham could have had five or six such were the chances we had and if you include the clear penalty when McFadden was toppled from behind having beaten two defenders to be through on goal 15 yards out we could have won this match. Needless to say Auntie didn’t screen that incident and only showed Johnson’s chance as a post match afterthought in the post game analysis. Gary Lineker made a mild sideswipe when discussing the plight of Bolton given that they have to play us soon. He said with that smug self-satisfied look on his face that they will never have a better chance (presumably of achieving a positive result). The Birmingham City I saw yesterday is no pushover for anybody in this league. If they continue to play with the commitment shown yesterday they will easily prove these so called experts completely wrong. They need to have faith as do we. Blues were denied a point their effort had richly deserved yesterday but remember we will not be playing teams as good as Spurs and Manchester United away from home every week!
KRO SOTV
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