Birmingham City v Wigan Preview
Tomorrow sees us face Wigan at St Andrews in the Premier League. I am going to be at this one as it also the latest fans forum at the club – more on that next week!
After a couple of disappointing results in the league, we will be looking to win and secure the 40 point mark – just to MAKE SURE that we are safe! 
After the fantastic run came to an end at Chelsea, we have struggled a bit. It is interesting that the squad has had a few changes too because of injuries. According to the news I have at the moment, we are back to full strength. It looks like Barry Ferguson is available again, of course he may not go straight into the side.
The other player who has missed a couple of games is Chucho. I didn’t see last Sunday’s game, but I gather that McFadden did pretty well up front with Jerome. Despite this, I think I would bring Chucho back in. This is the sort of game that he could get his first St Andrews goal. I get the impression, that he could go on a scoring run then.
As far as Wigan, they are going through a difficult time at the moment. They have only won one Premier League game since the end of November, a 2-0 away victory at Wolves. During that time was our 3-2 victory at their place, a mauling by Manchester United and they have failed to beat a number of clubs who are in the relegation fight.
Titus Bramble and James McCarthy are likely to miss the game due to injuries, but as far as I can tell, they don’t have any other problems with players.
With the greatest respect to Wigan, this is the sort of game we should be winning as we look to cement ourselves as a mid-table Premier League side. I hope that Alex McLeish gets us to go on the offensive and look to get the crowd going with an early goal.
It would be nice to see us win comfortably, however I would take a 1-0!
As long as we return to our the defensive organisation that we were getting credit for during the unbeaten run, we should win.
I’m going for a 2-0 to Blues as a confidence boost before we face Portsmouth twice in a week in the cup and the league.
Credit Crunch in Football
Portsmouth. It’s their big day today. The hearing is at 11.30. Apparently talks broke down last night, and Pompey made a cash offer to HMRC this morning. However HMRC have refused that, they want most of the 7 million that’s owed.
The club face liquidation, where they will cease to exist today or more likely administration to give them longer to find a buyer. The problem with that of course is they will get a 9 point deduction which will relegate them making finding a buyer more difficult as Newcastle found.
This is the tip of the iceberg. Other clubs are also in difficulty, including Cardiff and Southend. Other clubs have also been talked about in the press.
It must be a horrible time for the fans of these clubs, I can remember when the Blues nearly went under and not knowing if we would continue. But the thing is, football is it’s own worse enemy.
The cash that has been pumped into the sport has caused clubs to plan and buy around possible income, speculate to accumulate approach. Portsmouth bought big the season they stayed up and we went down, clearly on wages that they couldn’t maintain.
Something has to be done or football will implode. The wages are too high for a start. Players at the top level earn the sort of money that would run hospitals and schools and possibly small countries!
I heard on the radio this morning that Manchester United’s debts are huge, the Glaziers have ensured that the debts are secured against the club rather than themselves. The advantage that United have that virtually all clubs don’t have is their brand.
Chelsea and more recently Manchester City have been heavily invested in by rich overseas people, I’d hate to imagine what the wages are at those two clubs. If either of the owners of those clubs walked away, they would probably go under because they wouldn’t find other rich people to take over.
I really hope our new owners don’t over stretch themselves to buy success, the one thing our previous board did seem to get right – was they knew how to balance the books.
Sorry that this is a ramble, it is really a collection of thoughts around a problem that I believe will only get worse unless someone makes a huge decision such as capping wages.
What are your thoughts on it?
The New Blues, How Has that Happened?
I was chatting with a friend on Facebook chat yesterday, both of us are still amazed at what has happened this season. The Blues I am used to, is supposed to lose a game like yesterday, just fail on getting record runs, get rolled over after scoring first. It is all very strange, enjoyable – but still strange!
Take yesterday, I was convinced we were going to lose. The last time we played Everton, we WERE fortunate to get a point. They had a good goal disallowed that would have put them 2-0 up. Since then they have improved and our run will end at some point – this game seemed the likely one. However, the team stuck to their task and got the result, and despite what some Everton forums have said – we deserved to win. Now it is 15 without defeat.
We have people all over the press giving us credit for our run, including the London press. MOTD have praised us and I have seen plenty of positive comments by fans on other sites.
So what is it, that has made this happen?
Well, without doubt, the takeover gave the club a bounce. From Sammy Yu’s appearance on the Tom Ross radio show where he answered fans questions – the club seem in touch with the fans. We have talked about the fans forum, there is a good feel. Surely that can’t be it can it? Yes, definitely.
We have a team who have taken the step up from last season, where to be honest we weren’t that good although better than most of the rest. Everyone fights for each other. We have a number of players that could be captain, but are willing to follow a captain. Yes we are lacking a bit up front, but the fact we are conceding a few, it gives us the chance of getting something out of the game even if we only have 1 or 2 chances. But surely that can’t be it can it? Yes, definitely.
What about the manager? When the previous board went after him, there was some concern. Rangers fans talked about McLeish as someone who bottles it in a difficult situation, not willing to change things. Well we got relegated, and if I’m honest I could see their point. Even last season where we finished 2nd, I genuinely thought that we played poorly beside a handful of games.
At the start of this season, we had the 451 formation and we struggled with it. Bolton was a turning point. The crowd called for 442, and to be fair to the manager he did change it. We did end up losing, but we did look better after the formation changed.
Since then, we have gone on from strength to strength. We have played all the top 8 and the only 2 to beat us is Arsenal and Villa, (which was early in the season).
So what is it of McLeish? Well he has definitely NOT bottled it as far as I’m concerned. He has kept faith in a side that is getting results, but he has made good decisions as far as substitutes are concerned. He has clearly got a match plan, that is different depending on the side we are playing. Whatever he is saying, the team are clearly following those plans.
The other thing about Eck, is his manner in interviews after the game. No moaning, you believe he just thinks this has gone – no to the next game.
I post on Small Heath Alliance from time to time, and one of the users on there, (tarantini), posted something which sums my comments up well, this was in the light of the Everton game – but rings true IMO:
We have a manager who:
1. Backs an Academy player in a high-tempo game
2. Could buy Billy Bigboots but gets players off the scrapheap instead
3. Acknowledges a clubs history but challenges the team to beat it
4. Goes back for the player he wants
5. Respects his opponent but is not cowed by him
So is it down to the manager? Yes, definitely.
Actually it is all 3 of these things, a bit like the fire triangle. If you lose fuel, heat or oxygen – the other 2 aren’t sufficient to produce fire. Obviously we will lose at some point, quite possibly on Wednesday – however I believe we can get back up and win the following game because of these 3 things.
It’s fun being a Blues fan at the moment!
Kev
Joys and Sorrows on ESPNSTAR (Website!)
I was approached by Eugene YS Han of ESPNSTAR.com, to give a review of our season so far.
Here is the link to the article.
Kev
VIEW FROM THE SOUTH – BIRMINGHAM CITY vs MANCHESTER CITY
Here is Bazza’s take on yesterdays game.
———————————————————————————-
There is no doubt that once again most of the so-called experts of the beautiful game had this one down as a nice comfortable away win. It had the sort of comfort to it that one associates with the old sofa in the living room, a fat, longstanding girlfriend or the slippers that were bought for you by Auntie May four years ago and are now so threadbare and smelly that they should have been confined to the circular filing cabinet a while back but hey they feel so comfy. The compelling thing about the beautiful game however is its unpredictability. On paper the smart betting slips were all being filled out Man City to win with a prediction of Tevez to notch the first goal at odds of 3/1 (it was 4/7 for the win alone) because of the vast array of talent that they rolled into town with. Adding up the money paid for the players in the respective teams the difference was a staggering £123 million and it is perhaps not unreasonable to expect that the classier side would prevail.
I wasn’t able to travel to the game for a number of reasons so I had to console myself with my feet up in front of the telly. Don’t get me wrong I would much sooner have been at the game but sadly it was not possible. Mrs Bazza knew she wasn’t going to get any sense out of me or my youngest son for over two hours so sensibly made herself scarce from 3.30 onwards. I was gratified to see that we had set up 4-4-2 for the second week running with Jerome and Chucho up front. The team looks settled and balanced and went at their more illustrious opponents from the off. The commentary team, although impressed, doubted our ability to continue pressing for the full 90 minutes and with the pace the game was being played at so did I. They and I were to be proved wrong and this has to go down as one of our best Premier League performances to date. Blues were unlucky not to win this game, the penalty miss by McFadden aside. When a team containing Zabaletta, Tevez, Barry, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Santa Cruz, Lescott, Kompany, Bridge, Bellamy and the truly fabulous Shay Given turn up to play and depart relieved at having escaped with a point one has to conclude that Blues played well. Shay Given received the man of the match award and rightly so for three tremendous saves and I don’t include the penalty in this. The spot kick by McFadden was lamentable. It was hesitant, too close to the keeper and hit with not enough pace but it is questionable whether Blues would have gone on to win even if it had been converted. Goals change games and not necessarily in the way one expects sometimes. Ron from ‘Singing the Blues’ makes a valid comment in his report this morning that with half and hour plus to go at that point that the likelihood was that the dynamics of the game would have changed and Manchester City would undoubtedly have changed things earlier than they did and knowing us we would have started to defend deeper and deeper with the likely outcome of at least an equaliser. In a way I agree with Ron that the miss kept the game on an even keel as we were far more likely to have won this game with a late goal than one scored on 55 minutes.
Blues were the better side for most of the match and a point from this one is an excellent result. Not many teams are going to take anything from Manchester City home or away this season and they will be vying for a top four finish this year. Scott Dann and Roger Johnson were immense once again in the centre of defence and Ridgewell dealt admirably with the pacy Wright-Phillips at left back. Stephen Carr showed all his experience against Bellamy and it meant that the returning Maik Taylor in goal had relatively little to do. The midfield functioned well with the industrious Larsson the pick. Ferguson put in an excellent shift but marred his performance by stupidly getting a second yellow card for deliberate hand ball from a throw in the fourth minute of time added on. McFadden played beautifully despite the penalty miss and was rightly substituted not long after as he was on a yellow card and likely to get a second with overzealous attempts to make amends. Good management on the part of Big Eck I thought. Bowyer worked hard throughout. Chucho was unlucky not to score with a shot that deflected to be then finger tipped onto the post by Given in the first half. A goal is due from that young man and it will be soon readers; very soon, trust me but he should have scored not long after this when put through one on one with the keeper who saved brilliantly nevertheless with his feet. Jerome played much better than last week and was substituted near the end by the evergreen Kevin Phillips who so nearly snatched all three points with his first touch. A clean strike with his swivelling volley eight yards out would surely have netted.
This performance and all the ones before it apart from the game at Burnley indicate that Blues are not out of place in this league. The aim remains to simply survive and build from there. Two or three quality additions in January with the promised money will I believe cement that aim. Regardless, if we continue to perform like this Blues will be all right.
KRO SOTV
-
Partners
-
Polls
Loading ...
-
Recent Posts
- St Andrews Tannoy Sytem – Give Your Feedback
- Post Portsmouth Musings!
- Who’s going to be the top marksman?
- VIEW FROM THE SOUTH – PORTSMOUTH v BIRMINGHAM CITY
- Nail Biting Blues!
- Portsmouth v Birmingham City – FA Cup preview
- As the Blues Announce a Loss – We Ask, is it Bad News?
- 2nd Supporters Clubs and Blues Websites Meeting
- Gil Merrick Memories
- Martin Taylor Speaks to Joys and Sorrows
-
Other Stuff
