Home and Away

The nose-bleed territory of fourteenth in the table was reached by Birmingham City on Saturday, following their 2-0 away win against Bournemouth.

The victory marked the team's third win away from home on the bounce, making it six games unbeaten in the Championship for Blues. Despite dropping down one place the day later after Wigan's win against Bolton, spirits are high in the Birmingham camp, following a nervy start to the season in what has been deemed as a relegation battle for Blues from the off.

However recent results have pushed Lee Clark's men slowly up the standings and in order to put further daylight between themselves and the relegation trap door, Blues are going to have to start replicating their impressive away form back at St. Andrew's, a place which has only seen two league wins all season. 

Performances on their home turf have been exceedingly lacklustre; chalking up four losses already at what used to be renowned as 'fortress St. Andrew's' where not so long ago the Midlands side completed an impressive twelve months unbeaten at home.

The fortress now resembles a mere sandcastle, and Blues go into Saturday's game against Nottingham Forest desperate to pick up three points at home, in what would be their first league victory at their Midlands base since 1st October, when they embarrassed Millwall by four goals to nil.

But Forest, who sit just one point outside the play-offs despite winning only once in their last five games, will be looking to take advantage of Blues' questionable home form, and return to the East Midlands with points a plenty for their promotion push.

It's a real head-scratcher trying to figure out just where it goes wrong for Clark and his team at St. Andrew's. Although goals were pinpointed as the problem at the beginning of the season, that can't be said as much now, having scored nine goals in their previous five games.

The defence too has impressed greatly. Darren Randolph, man of the match at the Goldsands Stadium on Saturday, has pulled off multiple astute performances between the sticks, whilst his defence in front of him have put their bodies on the line on plenty of occasions this season; with Paul Robinson and Kyle Bartley standing out of late. The latter is also making an impact at the other end of the pitch as the club's second top goal scorer on five goals, just behind Jesse Lingard who has netted six times since joining the club on loan at the end of September.

Confidence and team spirit should not be a problem either, with the full time celebrations in Bournemouth showing just how tight-knit this group of player are; a far cry from last season, where many accused Clark of having lost the dressing room.

As the seasons reaches its half-way point, Blues need to be looking at creating an even larger gap between themselves and the drop zone and with games coming thick and fast over the festive period it gives them ample chances to chalk up the points.

Hopefully they can continue to push towards the top half of the table, which seemed an unrealistic aim when the season began. Clark and his team will have to put their heads together and solve the St. Andrew's puzzle first however, with the weekend a fine opportunity to do so and to continue their recent run of results.

Mixed Results

It’s a funny old game, football.

Such is the demand of the forty-six game a season Championship games come thick and fast, and while on Tuesday Blues were celebrating another fantastic victory over Barnsley, Saturday saw a disappointing defeat and the end to an unbeaten run stretching all the way back to December.

What was most apparent in Tuesday’s clash at Oakwell, and something that has been visible for the last few games, is that we are now much more clinical. Where we were once having 5-10 shots with one or two on target – Peterborough away for example – we now have a much better shots to shots on target/goals ratio.

As such, our three excellent finishes – albeit one handsomely deflected – allowed us to appear a much more clinical side and win the game, with the help of some astute defending. Chris Burke’s deflected shot put Blues ahead in under ten minutes, before an unlikely equaliser from David Cotterill, after the defence had a momentary lapse on concentration and were duly punished.

But Blues found themselves ahead again thanks to a 20 yard shot from Keith Fahey. A man who has booed only months previously had his name sung by the travelling 700 Bluenoses, which is a testament to how much the Republic of Ireland midfielder has changed opinions at St. Andrew’s with his strong performances in the centre of the park.

After commendable performances by all, the home side were limited to chances and as such Blues put the game to bed with twelve minutes left on the clock. Substitute Nathan Redmond beat the keeper from the tightest of angels to seal all three points for Blues and keep their unbeaten run going.

The next couple of days saw two loan singings come in; first, Portsmouth’s Erik Huseklepp was added to Chris Hughton’s charges. The pacey forward left the south-coast struggles with a heavy heart, but determined to do well at his new club. Another addition was made shortly after; this time Tottenham Hotspur’s Andros Townsend joined the ranks, having been on loan at fellow Championship side Leeds United up until his move to B9.

The new signings were set to make an impact as up next at home was a relatively straight-forward match against Championship strugglers Nottingham Forest who, on paper, have a team oozing with talent and experience. The likes of George Elokobi, Dexter Blackstock and Chris Gunter to name but a few. And Blues fans and players alike shouldn’t have been so quick to dismiss this, as they were on the wrong end of a 2-1 score line, bringing not only their unbeaten home run to an end, but their fifteen match unbeaten run to a close as well.

Dexter Blackstock produced the goods for the away side in both halves, whilst sandwiched in the middle was another impressive Chris Burke strike which seemed to offer hope of a victory, before it being snatched away with just under half an hour to go by the team who, ultimately, wanted it more on the day.

Despite the unfortunate defeat, Blues still sit in the play-off places with an extremely favourable goal difference. The FA Cup reply next week may provide a distraction, but it certainly isn’t unwanted. After all, a year ago today was the greatest day in Birmingham City’s history, and another trip to Wembley certainly wouldn’t be a bad thing.

That Winning Feeling

People are forever using the 'bus' analogy. "You wait ages for a bus and then they all come along at once!" Well, we've waited since the 6th February 2011 for a certain bus, and then this week, two have arrived at once.

Coming from behind in midweek, we beat Maribor to stop that unwanted stat from following us around – that we hadn't clocked up an away win since the start of February. However, today we searched for our first league away win since all those months ago at West Ham, and against a struggling Forest side we managed to get it. But not without a sluggish battle.

Playing in a 4-5-1 formation with Nikola Zigic replacing Marlon King and Boaz Myhill back in goal in the place of Colin Doyle, Blues started much more brightly than their counterparts yet failed to create any real danger. The first event of the afternoon was an early, forced, substitution, after Jonathan Spector was fouled by ex-Blue Matt Derbyshire and had to come off, being replaced by David Murphy. Chris Hughton’s injury problems keep on mounting, and his teams’ on the field problems also took a turn for the worst after Forest took the lead ten minutes before half time. After no clear-cut chances for either side, the home team took a somewhat surprise lead after Lewis McGugan’s flicked on corner found its way to Ishmael Miller who headed home at close range, easing the pressure on manager Steve McLaren.

Searching for their first home win of the season, Nottingham Forest began to frustrate a Blues side who lacked creativity and flair. Birmingham’s misplaced passes and inability to find a man that was so prominent in the previous league fixture against Barnsley reared its ugly head again, and the away side found it hard to penetrate the Forest defence as the game went into the second half.

Nikola Zigic and Wade Elliott made way for Marlon King and Chris Wood early into the second half which changed the shape to 4-4-2. Not long after Blues were back on level terms when out of nowhere Chris Burke produced a fantastic 30-yard screamer to make it three goals in three goals for the in-form winger. Fifteen minutes to go: game on.

With the home crowd beginning to get on the back of their out-of-form team, Blues were in the ascendancy, and just four minutes later they were ahead. Again it was Burke involved, this time as provider for loanee Wood who picked up the Scot’s pass and slotted home – with the help of a deflection – another goal to add to his tally for Blues. And it wasn’t over yet. As Blues and Forest fans sung anti-McLaren songs in unison; Pablo Ibanez, finding his feet in the Blues side after two consecutive games, headed forward a ball that was missed completely by the Forest defence. This set Wood away one on one with Lee Camp, and there was only ever going to be one winner. Calm and collected, Wood slotted his second of the game home to send the Blues fans into even more delirium and to further compile the Forest fans’ misery.

As the full time whistle went boos could be heard around The City Ground which seems to be commonplace this season. On and off the field problems have created worrying times for all Forest fans, but as Blues supporters we can rejoice after another away win, and, although it wasn’t the most spectacular nor encouraging of performances, another three points.

So; away wins. Like buses, they do take forever to get here, and although we had to wait seven months for a much coveted away win, two coming along at once has been welcomed by all Blues fans, Blues players and Blues management especially. As have the three points in Europe and the three points in the league. We've got that winning feeling.


Full Time: Nottingham Forest 1-3 BLUES
Goal Scorers: Miller (35) Burke (75) Wood (79) (88)
Star Man: Chris Wood; for changing what was an abject performance and a loss, into an entertaining fifteen minutes and three goals - netting two of them himself. Sign this boy up.
Nex Up: Leicester City at home - Championship