End of Season Reflections

A week ago today saw the end of the Championship season and all the promotion and relegation decisions were made; Hull gained the last automatic promotion place, Leicester beat Nottingham Forest in the last minute to leapfrog both them and Bolton Wanderers, who could only draw at home to Blackpool, into the last play-off place. They joined Watford, Crystal Palace and Brighton, whilst at the other end of the table Sheffield Wednesday, Barnsley and Huddersfield all fought off relegation, condemning Peterborough and Wolverhampton Wanderers to League One alongside already relegated Bristol City.

And amongst only three matches which didn’t have a deciding factor on the race for promotion or the battle to beat the drop, were Birmingham City.

It’s been an indifferent season for the Blues to say the least. Wins were few and far between at the beginning of the campaign, and a 5-0 home defeat to Barnsley made many question to managerial abilities of Lee Clark, who was going to have a hard job as it was succeeding the much loved Chris Hughton.

Lee Clark had a tough act to follow. Image: Getty Images

But with only four wins under his belt by the end of October, Clark definitely had a lot to prove. The team were lacklustre, the defending questionable and we seemed incapable of both starting and finishing a game of the front foot. The team from last season seemed to have disappeared; even player of the season Chris Burke had lost his touch.

Injuries didn’t help Clark, especially the loss of top goal scorer Marlon King. The youngsters were drafted in, and although they managed to step up to the demands of a tough league, things were looking bleak and Blues had a definite relegation battle on their hands going into the second half of the season.

Fortunately things slowly picked up. Blues ended January in winning ways which sparked a fantastic away record, winning against the teams around them such as Peterborough as well as chalking a 4-0 win against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park, live on Sky, which won performance of the season at the end of season awards – and rightly so.

Players celebrate the fourth goal at Crystal Palace. Image: Getty Images

Three consecutive wins at the end of March left Blues mid-table and slowly creeping away from relegation, but points picked up in April – most notably a hard-fought win at Bristol City followed by a 1-0 home victory against Leeds – saw Blues safe, and ironically quite close to the play-offs, which had seemed a distant memory of the season before in December.

The end of the season could have been better. Three goals down at Ipswich Town in the penultimate match of the season wasn’t a place we deserved to be in after recent performances, but 3-1 seemed a fair result after the first half defensive display.

The final game of the season saw a 1-1 draw against Blackburn, and the end to a less than enthralling season for the Blues. It was a change in scenery having nothing to be too excited or nervous about at any point during the season; only last season we saw a play-off campaign and European Tour, and previous seasons saw promotions, relegations, a Carling Cup win, and a top half finish in the Premier League.

Although it was relieving not to be involved in last-game-of-the-season drama for once, I admit I missed it. Watching the final games on the Football League Show made me miss being involved in something big for the club, and although in the end we weren’t a million miles away from the play-offs we still weren’t convincing enough, not by a long way.

The home form needs to improve drastically, as going from one of the best in the league to one of the worst is a massive change in fortunes. Ironically we have never been very good away from home, but 2013 has seen Blues flourish in away fixtures something which, if replicated at St. Andrew’s, would stand us in good stead for play-off contention next season.

Things will change between now and then. Stephen Carr has already announced his retirement, whilst the option was not taken up to retain the services of Keith Fahey – after four and a half years at the club and one of the only remaining Wembley winners – with Morgaro Gomis, Pablo Ibanez and Steven Caldwell all leaving the club too.

A host of players have been offered new deals or had their options taken up, including Chris Burke, Wade Elliott and Paul Robinson, showing that Clark wants to keep the old guard to influence the crop of young players coming through, who will also have a major part to play next season after stepping up to the first team and doing so well. Keeping hold of players like Curtis Davies, who won both player and players' player of the season, will be Clark's task before the start of the 2013/14 season, as well as building a squad fit for a play-off campaign.

Even with the financial mess still impacting the club and the team massively, hopefully next season will be a better one for Blues, and with any luck come the last game of the season, it’ll be a little more interesting with a lot more to play for – at the right end of the league of course.

 

Lee Clark will look to build on a 12th place finish. Image: Bcfc.com

Remaining A Constant

There aren’t many constants at a football club. Manager, players, boards, even fans leave. Even, as Cardiff City have found recently, your club colours and badge may change given certain, unwanted, circumstances.

Today, twelve months since our last manager left, Chris Hughton departed for Premier League Norwich City. There is a certain irony about the team we beat in the play-off final a decade ago have poached our manager, and left us in the lurch to some extent.

It was one whirlwind of a season and I’d like to thank Chris Hughton for that. His enthusiasm, his excellent man management and his motivation we’re a constant, not to mention bringing the attacking football to St. Andrew’s that we’ve craved for so long, and for that I thank him. But now it’s onwards and upwards; we need a new manager, but the question is: who would want to come to us? We’ve been linked with Ian Holloway – but we’d need to pay money for him, money that we can’t afford to spend – we’ve also been linked with the likes of Gianfranco Zola, Lee Clark (the favourite to take over) and Mick McCarthy to name but a few.

Laying it our bare, we are a club in turmoil. A thread bare squad that Premier League teams may look to poach from (Hughton will definitely be looking at players like Curtis Davies), a transfer embargo (that may well be lifted in the coming days/weeks but at present is still weighing us down), corrupt owners who, to put it plainly, don’t have a pot to do their business in, and to top that little mess off; an owner facing money laundering charges.

It sounds bleak, and I don’t know how many more times we can rise above the controversy, like a phoenix out the ashes, and overcome the adversity. One thing us as fans can do though is make sure we support the team, and support the club. The thing we can all agree on is that we are being run extremely poorly and as fans we don’t deserve to be treated like this – no one does. But we’ve survived many a kick in the teeth before yet we stand back up, ready for the next sucker punch, because that’s what we’re used to and that’s what we’ll do, for the love of our club.

Out of all of this, we need to make sure that we are the one thing that remains a constant: managers depart, players leave, but the fans – the loyal fans – are there forever. It may be hard to pledge yourself to a club where you don’t know where you money is going, but in times of adversity sticking together and pulling through is the best thing, and the only thing, us as fans can do.

Finally Beaten

Birmingham City’s magnificent nine match unbeaten run came to an unfortunate end yesterday afternoon, losing by one goal to nil at the Madejski Stadium. After creating enough chances to score but failing to convert them, Blues were undone by a Noel Hunt goal just fifteen minutes from time and were unable to fight back to earn a point – or all three – against a strong Reading side; meaning that they fell to their first defeat in all competitions since losing 2-0 against Manchester City in the Carling Cup in September.

As the song says, ‘though you’re tired and weary, still journey on’ but ten games unbeaten seemed a bridge too far for Blues. Yet, who would have thought at the beginning of the season, with the squad Hughton had assembled and the shoe string budget, we would have gone nine games unbeaten? Although going into the international break off the back of a win would have been favourable; the break has come at the best time for Hughton and his side who now have the time to re-group, and take a well-earned rest ahead of the busy Winter schedule coming up after the two week break.

Facing Peterborough and Burnley at St. Andrews upon their return to league action, Hughton then takes his team on four away trips: Blackpool, an important Europa league tie against Braga midweek, followed by trips to first Cardiff and then Hull City. He will need every single squad member at his disposal with no easy games, especially with the Europa League game against Braga which, with three teams at the top of the group all on seven points, is extremely important if we stand any chance of qualifying.

It’s been an interesting season so far for Birmingham. A shaky start has been more than evened out and Blues are now in the top half with three games in hand on the majority of their rivals. Hopefully the international break proves to be a successful healing period for Hughton’s charges; and that they come out all guns blazing when they return to both Championship and Europa League action.

A New Beginning

After a short period of uncertainty, there is now an optimistic feeling amongst Blues fans and those associated with the club after this afternoon’s announcement that Chris Hughton has been named the manager of Birmingham City.

From the perspective of a young fan like myself, I am more than happy with the choice to appoint Hughton who I thought did a brilliant job at Newcastle before being unjustly sacked by the controversial Mike Ashley. Turning around Newcastle so soon after they got relegated; contributing to one of their best starts to a league season ever and gaining promotion at the first time of asking was a great achievement and something he can hopefully replicate in his first season at Birmingham.

Hughton then began Premier League life by successfully guiding Newcastle to mid-table safety in the first few months, before he was somewhat controversially sacked in December, shortly after a 3-1 defeat to West Brom whilst the club were eleventh in the table. This sent shockwaves throughout the Newcastle fans whom had taken to Chris Hughton and admired him as a manager. This was just another decision by Mike Ashley which further dampened his relationship with fans who weren’t too delighted with him beforehand.

Since then he has been out of work however when Alex McLeish resigned from his post at Blues almost two weeks ago, Chris Hughton was one of the first names mentioned amongst the Blues faithful, and was the first to be interviewed by acting chairman Peter Pannu for the vacant managers position.

Apparently impressing with his ideas and vision about attacking football in his meeting with Pannu, it seems as though the future may be a bit brighter for Birmingham City than we first thought. The appointment of Hughton has obviously pleased the majoirty of fans, but it will hopefully been a positive for the players too, as Hughton has previously been described as manager whom has a great releationship with his players.

Now is the time to forget the past with McLeish and relegation, and look to the future with a new manager in Chris Hughton at the helm who can hopefully bring a positive attitude and a much more pleasant style of attacking football to St. Andrews. Let’s hope that Hughton can repeat his successes at Newcastle here at Blues so we can get back to playing Premier League football as soon as possible.

Welcome To Birmingham City, Chris Hughton.