LEAGUE HONOUR GOLDEN SIX

May 21, 2009 by KevB8ll · Leave a Comment
Filed under: General Football 

No mention of any Blues players – thought that our defence might get a mention. However I guess it is difficult to argue too much with the winners.

———————————————————————————————————————-

- Winners of 2008/09 PUMA Golden Boot and Golden Glove Awards announced -
 
The leading scorers and shot-stoppers from all three divisions of The Football League are to receive PUMA Golden Boot and Golden Glove awards to mark their respective achievements in all competitions this season.
 
The winner of the Golden Boot for the Championship, for the second consecutive season, is Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Sylvan Ebanks-Blake. The Championship’s ‘Player of the Season’ has notched 25 goals to see off the challenge of Swansea City’s Jason Scotland (24) and Cardiff City’s Ross McCormack (23).
 
The Golden Glove award will be shared by Queen’s Park Rangers’ Radek Cerny and Paddy Kenny of Sheffield United.  Both keepers recorded 19 clean sheets from 47 appearances in all competitions.
 
In League 1, where 4 players topped the 30 goal mark, Leeds United striker Jermaine Beckford took the Golden Boot honours after hitting the back of the net 34 times. Tranmere Rovers’ Welsh international goalkeeper Danny Coyne, recorded 20 clean sheets to secure the division’s Golden Glove prize.
 
Grant Holt’s 28 goals in his first season at Shrewsbury Town helped him win the League 2 Golden Boot by a 5 goal margin.  Brentford goalkeeper Ben Hamer, who spent the season on loan at Griffin Park from Reading, kept 20 clean sheets to help secure the League 2 title for the Bees and the Golden Glove Award for himself.
 
In announcing the PUMA Golden Boot and Golden Glove Award winners, Lord Mawhinney, Chairman of The Football League, said:
 
“These awards give us the opportunity to recognise the goalscorers and goalkeepers who have made a very special contribution to their team’s efforts this season.  Each of these players has had an outstanding season and they all fully deserve this recognition.”
 
Roger Harrison, Marketing Director at PUMA UK, added:
“Strikers and goalkeepers can often win a match for their team with a last minute goal or breathtaking save.  These new accolades give us an opportunity to reward players of all levels – congratulations to all of the winners.”
 
Goals and clean sheets in The Coca-Cola Football League, Carling Cup, Johnstone’s Paint Trophy and FA Cup sponsored by E.ON have all counted towards the PUMA Golden Boot and Golden Glove awards.
 
Further Details:
John Nagle
Head of Communications
The Football League

Tags: , , , , ,

Where Promotion Was Won

May 6, 2009 by KevB8ll · 2 Comments
Filed under: Blues News, Matches, Reports By Nat 

Nat who has written a few match previews for the season just passed, has come up with his take on the key matches which swung promotion for us.

————————————————————————————-

I have outlined the eleven key games this season where, in my opinion, we really set ourselves up for an ultimately successful promotion push:

Sheffield United (H) 09/08/2008

A 1-0 win thanks to a last gasp Kevin Phillips goal on a dreary opening day of the season live on Sky. It was tedious, it was gritty, but it was three points, and was to prove to be a prototype for future games.

Bristol City (A) 16/09/2008

A 2-1 win away from home against last season’s Championship play-offs runners-up was a signal of strength and intent from a determined Blues team.

Cardiff City (A) 27/09/2008

To go to an intimidating place like Cardiff and control the game to snatch a 2-1 victory showed that there was a tough belly to Blues thus far unconvincing exterior.

Charlton Athletic (H) 15/11/2008

After a run of picking up one point from a possible nine in their previous three games, Blues started shakily, trailing 2-1 at half-time at a point where Big Eck’s strategy was being called into question. Luckily, fighting spirit prevailed in the form of talismen Franck Queudrue and Kevin Phillips to win 3-2 and stop the rot.

Swansea City (A) 21/11/2008

A very tough Friday night game, Blues were run ragged for 70 minutes by a fitter, faster Swansea. Enter Kevin Phillips, who within two touches of the ball had turned a disappointing defeat into a wonderful win, to give us some real momentum following on from the win six days earlier vs. Charlton.

Derby County (H) 27/01/2009

One League win in our last six had suggested that Blues’ season was going off the rails, and our first-half performance vs. a mediocre Derby was nothing short of dreadful. A Lee Carsley winner to algamate with a better second-half performance lifted the gloom somewhat.

Nottingham Forest (H) 14/02/2009

A 2-0 win and a decent performance to boot, something not readily said when describing displays in recent months. A superb maiden goal from an emerging Irishman also got everyone talking. The name? Keith Fahey, not that we’ve seen much of him since…

Doncaster Rovers (A) 14/03/2009

Another 2-0 win, and this being extra special being our first away win for nearly three months, and our first convincing away win since Winston Churchill was in nappies!

Wolves (H) 05/04/2009

Humiliating any team is special. Humiliating any team with one less man for more than half a match is even more special. Humiliating the Dingles with one less man for more than half a match is too special to be put into words…

Watford (A) 18/04/2009

For all our pressure at Vicarage Road, it seemed as if it would be another ’so near yet so far’ story for Blues. Enter a heavily deflected Cameron Jerome shot sending an army of Blues fans home delirious knowing the promotion ball was firmly in our court.

Reading (A) 03/05/2009

Do I need to explain?

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Swansea City & Ipswich Town – Reports By Bazza

November 27, 2008 by Aff · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Reports By Bazza 

Those of you that have not lost the will to live and have ploughed through my previous articles will know that Mrs Bazza has a congenital absence of the football gene. Last week I announced that I had spoken to our 19-year old son on the phone and that it was our intention to go to the Swansea game on the Friday night. My son is at University in Bristol and it occurred to him and of course myself that it would be an ideal opportunity to meet up, spend some quality time and take in the game to boot. Mrs Bazza did not see it that way at all.

You’re not driving all the way to Wales on a Friday night, don’t be stupid, it’s too far, you’ll spend 5 – 6 hours in the car yadda yadda yadda! I had naturally already checked on distances and discovered that the Liberty Stadium was only 5 miles further away than St Andrews. My wife was not having this and the time to travel there and back was now extending by half an hour with every sentence and there were many sentences intrepid readers! I listened patiently to all the reasons why I shouldn’t set out on this venture, smiled sweetly and said I was bloody going and that was the end of the matter. I did suggest that she may like to join us so that she could see her boy whom she tells me most days she misses. “What! Traipse all the way to bloody Wales? You have to be joking!” I had to accept she did have a point there! – well you wouldn’t normally want to cross Offa’s Dyke from God’s country would you?

That was decided then; tickets were purchased to be collected, car was packed with groceries for our poor wee lamb who was probably starving to death as we spoke, shirt of the faithful was donned and I betook myself down the M4. Apart from the satnav directing me three miles away from where my son was, the journey was without mishap. We travelled on together to Swansea to a well organised Park and Ride which deposited us right outside the ground in time to get in, grab a pint and burger and chips with salt, vinegar, tomato ketchup, the lot! (Sadly there were no pies; a huge sin of omission in my view). The Liberty Stadium is a modern ground with television coverage of the match for late comers. We decided to watch the first couple of minutes in the catering area whilst we finished our chips and pint.

GOAL! 0 -1 and only 90 seconds gone! Gloom already! We finished up and took our seats. Swansea proceeded to batter us and how they were not 3 – 0 by 15 minutes only their forwards will know. We were very very lucky. We were too narrow, lacking pace on both defensive flanks and the Swansea wide men were literally playing kick and rush and getting behind us with consummate ease.

Out of nothing we broke away and following a superb cross to Bent it was 1 – 1. Got out of jail there then? Not so; just in time added on we got opened up on the other flank and Liam Ridgewell’s valiant attempt to prevent the cross coming in from the bye-line saw the ball clip his heel and trickle just over the line. At 2 – 1, I could only see Swansea scoring more and had it been 5 – 1, we could have had no complaint whatsoever.

Due credit has to be given to Alex McLeish and the players after half time. The formation was changed to 4-4-2 pushing McFadden further forward. We started to up the tempo, get in their faces, deny them time and space and hey presto they were playing in front of us. Passing the ball better also helped. Super Kev and Agustien came on and the game changed radically.

Two superb finishes from Phillips turned the game on its head. Although Blues were undoubtedly the better side in the second half, over the whole piece this very attractive Swansea side can rightfully feel aggrieved that they lost this game. Sadly for them, when pressured they are vulnerable and will concede goals to teams that have a go at them. Going forward they are the best team I have seen us play this season. I see them in the play-offs come May.

Pleasing though this result was it was once again a game of two halves and highlighted the main problem Blues have had this season. Hard work and a high tempo throughout are required to beat these teams. Sluggish, off the boil performances will result in dropped points and one only needs to point to the games against Blackpool, Coventry City and QPR for evidence of that.

So onto to Ipswich at home; I had been offered a VIP ticket to watch Arsenal in the Champions League on the same night. Deluded fool that is the blind, faithful Bluenose that I am, I turned it down to drive up to Birmingham instead!

Actually I’m glad I did because for once I think I saw the better match. We came out of the traps at pace and having scored two in 14 minutes and had another Phillips effort disallowed a wonderful start highlighted an excellent first half performance. Ridgewell’s goal was a fabulous finish and I was pleased for him after his mistake against Charlton. As for Phillips? Imperious, brilliant and sheer class. The guy’s movement is a delight to watch. It just shows that the truly great strikers don’t necessarily have to be big or tall they just need to get in the right places and Super Kev does time and again.

The second half was a bit of an anti-climax as we went of the boil a little and sat back allowing a very ordinary Ipswich Town side to come back into a game they should have long since been out of. Despite this with more fortune and run of the ball a third and fourth could easily have accrued. The customary nervous last few minutes were guaranteed when we failed to defend a corner properly and concede to Alex Bruce’s near post header.

2 – 1 fails to tell the story of how dominant Birmingham were. Despite the rather disappointing second period the overall performance was much better than of late and we can only hope that Blues are finally getting to grips with what is required. We will have to be at our best against Wolves on Saturday and prolonged lacklustre periods in that game will result in null points. I am hopeful that Blues’ perennial tendency to up their game against the better sides in whatever division we’re in will come to the fore.

Certainly, the boys in gold and black do concede if they are attacked. Let’s hope so because defensively we are not good enough to defend a narrow lead for long periods. I always say that I am never wrong with a prediction except lottery ticket numbers and Birmingham City’s scores so I’m not going to attempt to call it but I believe we have nothing to fear providing we play to our best.

KRO, SOTV

Tags: ,

Swansea Vs Blues – Report From Down Under

November 25, 2008 by Aff · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Life In Australia, Matches 

I have to get a couple of things out of the way before telling you about my experience of Blues away at Swansea this weekend. Firstly, the point of today’s blog, to report on Blues away at Swansea City. Here’s a selection of match reports for your viewing pleasure :

- Beeb
- Teamtalk
- Guardian
- Singing The Blues
- BCFC.com
- Swansea City site

Secondly, there hasn’t been any updates for the last week. You may or may not have noticed. I apologize for that. You see, I’m having second thoughts about the blog. Not about running it, you understand. I love running it and the new angle has re inspired me somewhat. However, for every match, I’m finding that my reports’of “Got up at stupid O’Clock, listened on radio via painfully slow internet, didn’t get an impression of what really went on,” might get a little bit tedious after a while.

Thankfully, I’ve already had offers of help from various people and I will get around to replying to them soon enough. It seems as though the more time I get online, the more things there are to do. I’m pleased to say that it looks like Bazza will once again offer his regular column – complete with travel reports! – and Nat has agreed to do some work on match previews and match reports. Anyone else willing to offer will be hearing from me shortly. I’m after Blues-specific articles. Obviously, you’d think, eh?!

Basically I’m trying to say that whilst I try and get back up to speed with blogging regularly and signing up people to write articles etc, it might be a little bit ’samey’ for a while. I’m trying to build a picture of what it’s like to be supporting Blues from afar. I don’t think I’ve done that too well yet. The time difference, the lack of sleep, the lack of access to every day news, the finding time to specifically ‘catch up’, the onslaught of local sport that’s more important etc. It’s not easy. I hope to, in time, mix experiences of exile life with the every day articles that once made Joys & Sorrows such an interesting read.

Anyway, Swansea away…

A Friday night fixture at home meant an early Saturday morning for me. I’d been a bit disconnected this week with news of finding a job and buying a car being at the forefront of my mind. Blues sort of took a back seat although British football in general was beginning to seep into my consciousness thanks to the adding of Setanta Sports to our Austar TV package – for just $6 a month, no less! They show English international football, English international cricket and perhaps most importantly Setanta Sports News.

Now I know what some of you might be thinking : Setanta Sports News is crap! And yes, when compared with its more slick Sky Sports counterpart, it is. But when you compare it to Fox Sports News, you’d be counting your blessings. Especially when you see some of the presenters. Sky Sports News can boast Jeff Stelling and Georgie Thompson… Fox Sports have some chick whose head is so square that I keep thinking Buzz Lightyear is bringing me the latest NRL results and a guy who is so wooden that Pinocchico has started drinking, such is his worry that someone might take his job at next year’s panto at the Sydney Opera House.

Setanta Sports don’t have the best presenters but its heavily football-based and so at least its easy to see what is going on – and they show the Premier League highlights at 11 AM Sunday, a full 30 hours before Fox Sports. Plus it has Steve Claridge who makes me laugh by his absence. You just know that he’s thinking about the 10/3 outside bet at the 3:20 at Newmarket instead of focusing on the football. The quick-flick of the Sunday papers are good too. All the ridiculous headlines without the inconvenience of having to surf the web to these sites or find someone daft enough to buy the rags (because, let’s face it, who buys the Daily and Sunday Star?)

Blues were set to kick off at 6:45 AM on the Saturday morning. I decided that instead of getting up, I would run the internet cable down through the hall, leave my laptop next to my bed and simply lie in bed with some headphones on. There were no live games on the TV to accompany listening to Blues and so staying in bed seemed like the most sensible idea. Besides, having coffee whilst listening to Blues probably wouldn’t be the most sensible idea. My nerves are frayed enough…

After some minor scrapping – and swearing – with my power saving features on my laptop, I managed to tune in just as the game was kicking off. For once, McLeish and I were on the same wavelength and he picked the same side that I would’ve away from St Andrew’s. I think Kemy’s more of an option at home but at a place where a draw might be considered a good result, it’s important to be strong in the middle and Nafti is certainly that. Quincy getting a start, McFads up top alongside the much unfairly maligned Marcus Bent. Well done, Big Eck! I can sense a victory.

D’oh. 30 odd seconds in and it’s all going wrong. I had been warned not to celebrate when we scored or berate our lot if we went behind. After all, it’s one thing lying in bed listening to Blues when you’re alone, quite another thing to inflict Blues on your partner who is sleeping soundly next to you. To my credit, I huffed and left it there. I did want to ask just what the fudge was going on, question how much we wanted it, and generally berate everything and anything from Wales – possibly with the exception of Katherine Jenkins because her accent seems pretend.

From the “Great commentary, Tom!” I was getting via 1152, it sounded as though Swansea could’ve gone in three or four up. Jaidi was being run for pace and isolated each time whilst Blues seemed sluggish and generally clueless. Since I’d arrived in Australia, I’d heard us win just once on the radio, last week against Charlton when everyone agreed that it was just one of those games where mad things happen and that our victory was more by accident than design – and hearing us struggle was something I was, sadly, becoming all too familiar with.

Tom Ross and Jon McCarthy tried to be positive but there was no denying the fact that Marcus Bent’s equaliser was rough justice on our hosts. Still, taking your chances is perhaps the most important aspect of this game of ours and we’d done that. But the fact that we’re still being outplayed by most teams is a worry. The scoreline took a more correct turn before the break and I spent the half time break lying on my side – sulking. To make matters worse, it was absolutely lashing it down outside. We’ve been in drought for a while here and the rain was welcome news for the locals. I was supposed to be pleased that having come from two years of solid, almost uninterrupted rain, I had walked into yet more torrential rain. Pft.

I avoided falling asleep and tuned in just as the second half was kicking off. Honestly, off the top of my head I can’t remember the subs or when the Swansea injuries happened. It’s been over 24 hours and I’ve read nothing up on the match yet. It’s amazing how much you forget when you go simply by commentary. Especially when you’ve listened to as many games as I have over the years. I really should do the geek thing and save the text match reports from Blues Live before attempting to write any sort of match report.

The second half sounded much more even with Blues having a lot more of it. Super sub Kevin Phillips (oh how he must hate that tag) came good and showed just why he’s on the wages he is with two goals to win the game for Blues. The descriptions of the goals weren’t exactly superb with lots of “ARGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!” and “OHHHFDGSAFSDAfdsavfsdfgfdsg!!!!!!!!!” from Ross. Someone really needs to tell him to stop that. We know how to celebrate a goal. We don’t need him celebrating on our behalf. The only thing I really learnt about Super Kev’s goals were that the second one went into the top right hand corner. Aside from that, not a clue.

I greeted the equaliser with a clenched fist and a punch of the air. Which annoyed Mrs Aff because she decided that 8 AM on a Saturday morning is a good time for a “cuddle with Aff”. If she was mildly annoyed by that, I’m pretty sure she considered divorce when the winner was greeted with “YESSSS!!!!!” and a rendition of “Super, Super KEV!” Actually, in all fairness, the rendition did seem to last at least four hours. In fact, I woke up singing his name this morning. Ex-Villa or not, he’s doing the business at key times this season.

Blues winning on a Saturday morning is a great way of starting your weekend. The main focal point of the whole weekend is over with and you know it’s gone well. When the game kicks off at 3 PM on a Saturday – or 5:20 – it still has the potential to ruin everything. It’s even worse if Blues play on a Sunday and we lose. After all, it just reminds us that work is just around the corner and ruins at least half of your weekend. On the plus side, at least Saturday could be enjoyed. It’s a quandary.

As I touched upon in my previous blog, being an exile brings a unique perspective on performance versus points. Whether Blues win or lose, commentary rarely changes and there’s exciting bits and not so exciting bits. Even if Blues are crap, there’s hope when Ross’s voice goes high-pitched and unfathomable and bad news when you hear a cheer but no squeal. The commentary doesn’t describe the action, it doesn’t paint a picture in your mind, it doesn’t help you work out what’s happening. For an exile, all that matters is being connected and winning the points. Do I care if we didn’t play well when it’s 5 AM in the morning? Not really. All I want is for us to have won so I can go to bed with us in a better position than when my alarm woke me up. In the cold light of day, I can read and analyse a lot more and realise that we’re being quite fortunate but when we’re playing, I honestly don’t care.

Against Swansea, it didn’t sound like we played particularly well. Jon McCarthy (one of my all time Blues heroes) and Tom Ross were struggling to be positive and when this happens, you know that it must be truly bad. But we took three points. And I can forgive the bad performance and I can forgive the lack of entertainment and value for money because we won. I haven’t spent my hard earned money following and watching Blues so therefore, all I care about is the success. I’d love us to play Arsenal-esque football (only, with the ability to win from time to time!) and have people rave about us but I’m a bit more realistic than that and for now, and especialy in this league, winning is the most important thing.

Some believe that Blues fans, and football fans in general, are now treated like customers. We’re customers of the entertainment industry and as such, we should be offered up suitable entertainment for our hard earned. After all, when you come out of the cinema or away from a concert, you will inevitably compare the outlay with the quality of the product on offer. Why should football be any different? I agree with this point of view but again, as an exile, I’ll take a win over a performance every day of the week.

Had I been writing this six months ago, my opinion might have been different. I’ve seen some turgid stuff at St Andrew’s over the years and having walked out of the ground shaking my head, I’d wished I’d stayed at home. But when I take five minutes to think about such games, they’re all cheap cup games where we’ve struggled to knock over sub-standard opposition with aplomb or games where we’ve failed to get a favourable result. Not too many times have I walked out thinking that I wish I hadn’t bothered if Blues have won.

But then, that’s just me and when you’re starved of watching the club regularly, any visit to St Andrew’s to watch Blues is an event and any chance to see us win is one that’s taken. So maybe that should be the latest poll… performance versus points. Versus Swansea, I’m delighted to take the points. I’m now off to read what others thought of the performance.

Tags:

Theme Tweaker by Unreal
AWSOM Powered