“From Dave’s apartment to Wembley”

Reeling off a list of greats to grace the stage at Wembley in a specially written song for the occasion, Brandon Flowers exclaims the next line with pride: “after tonight, you’re gonna put another name on that list!”

It’s taken ten years for the band from Nevada to get to this point. Ten years, four studio albums, and a hell of a lot of grit and determination. They’ve shaken off their critics, like all bands do, and come back stronger. Their latest album Battle Born showing them to be as robust as ever, and well worth a place amongst the elite to have played at Wembley Stadium.

I’ll wax lyrical about Saturday night for a long time, but I have a reason to, and you’ll just have to take my word for it: I’ll never see a better show than The Killers at Wembley Stadium.

The full picture. Image: thefa.com

The lyrics ‘We hope you enjoy your stay’ rang around the stadium as Brandon appeared on stage, solo at the piano singing Enterlude, before being joined by the rest of the band who burst into When You Were Young – complete with pyrotechnics galore. We were jumping, singing, dancing and drenched in (what I hope was) beer, and the show had only just begun.

After soaring through Spaceman, The Way It Was and Smile Like You Mean It, Brandon asked the crowd if it was alright if they sang one of their old numbers, before firing into This River Is Wild. That was it: the sixth song in, and my night had been made.

The rest of the phenomenal set was laced with the records which helped them rise to fame, as well as sensational covers of Shadowplay and I Think We’re Alone Now. They lit up the whole of Wembley with Here With Me and had us all mesmerized by their Wembley Song, name checking the greats to have played Wembley – ‘U2, Oasis, The Foos, The Eagles, Madonna and Muse’ – apologising for the past – ‘Green Day, I said some shit, but that was the old me’ – and brilliantly including their own lyrics – ‘the devil’s water and the good old days, ain’t we all just runaways?’ – making the night incomparable to any other concert or gig I had been to before.

Brandon Flowers. Image: theguardian.co.uk

All These Things That I’ve Done saw Wembley bathed in confetti, before the band came out for an encore to Flesh and Bone. The band flew into Jenny Was Friend Of Mine before the rousing Battle Born, and finishing the only way a show like this could be finished: with Mr Brightside.

There’s no over-hype surrounding The Killers. They are just a band of four phenomenally talented individuals – Brandon Flowers on vocals, Dave Keuning on guitar, Ronnie Vannucci Jr. on drums and Mark Stoermer on bass – four talented, yet down to earth people, who as a unit make pretty bloody great rock music. It’s as simple as that.

One humbling moment of the show saw Brandon doing his usual thanking the audience by coming along the front row, but this felt different. He was shaking as many hands as he could; he was down there for ages. And it really struck a chord with me because you could see just how grateful he was that they were there.

And straight after the show? Right back to it again, as the band were whisked away to a secret after show gig at The Garage in Islington, where they played the usual hits as well as songs like Tranquilize and Glamorous Indie Rock & Roll to a lucky few.

The Killers on stage. Image: NME.com

In an interview in NME magazine in the week leading up to the Wembley appearance, Ronnie talked about how when they were playing in his garage, right back at the start, he said: “We’ll play this shit at Wembley Stadium one day” and on Saturday night, they did just that.

Some said they weren’t big enough for Wembley. But after their huge performance there, many will say Wembley wasn’t big enough for them.

Unpredictable

Last minute goals, victories for the underdog, ridiculous circumstances no one thought would happen. The thing I love most about football is its unpredictability.

This weekend we watched two unpredictable ends to two important games. Wigan scoring in the 90th minute to beat top dogs Manchester City, winning the FA Cup for the first time in their history, followed the next day by the play-off semi-final second leg involving Watford and Leicester. A penalty and the follow-up saved at one end, and ten seconds later the ball in the net at the other end all in the dying seconds of the game.


Last gasp winners. Images: Sky News / Getty Images

It was fascinating to watch particularly the latter unfold. I don’t have any real affiliation to either Leicester or Watford, but I watched the events unfolding before my eyes with the hairs standing up on my arms, because this is what football is all about.

Watching both games made me remember, not for the first time, why I and millions of others are so engrossed in this sport. We go every week for moments like this. The underdogs beating a top team, not only in a competition as big as the FA Cup, but in the last minute to win the trophy like Wigan did is something special.

Being a Birmingham City fan I’ve experienced that moment with my own team; I could never forget Obafemi Martins scoring in the 89th minute to win us the League Cup against Arsenal, nor my first ever European away game against Brugge with Chris Wood scoring the winning goal in added time. And who could forget Stern John in the last minute at Villa Park?

Wembley Winners. Image: The Guardian

These instances don’t happen every week in football. Often you have to wait for wonderful, completely unscripted moments like last minute goals and unpredictable wins, but it’s worth the wait. The tough and grueling games you have to sit through to get there, the losses you suffer, the relegations you go through. The great moments make it all so worth it.

And when you're on the other end of it? I'm sure if you speak to any Leicester fan this week they'll tell you how much it hurts going from jubilation to complete despair. We've all been there, but it's the great moments, when you're the ones celebrating at the end, that make up for the heart break.

Although there will always be the Manchester Uniteds and the Arsenals of this world going for titles and Europe, and the same crop of teams battling relegation every season up and down the leagues, moments like this weekend just show that football is never completely predictable.

There will always be moments of magic, teams who take the script, rip it up and write a completely new one.

And the best thing? It happens in every league, in every competition. Wigan in the 90th minute to win the FA Cup, Didier Drogba equalising in the last minute to take the Champions League final to extra time, Brentford missing a penalty and Doncaster scoring at the other end to send them up as Champions, Martins to win the League Cup, Chris Wood to seal an away victory in Europe, Sergio Aguero to win the league.

Here’s to the teams who do the unthinkable, who threaten the top teams, who ruin bets, break hearts, make dreams come true. This is what makes football the greatest sport on earth.

"I swear you'll never see anything like this ever again"

Captain Carr

While Lee Clark today delivered the news that he had activated the option on Chris Burke’s contract to keep the winger at the club for another year, he also brought the blow that many had guessed was the case already: the retirement of Stephen Carr.

After being out of action for the whole of the 2012/13 season with a knee injury, an unsuccessful series of operations and one-on-one sessions with the medical staff at Blues have forced Carr to make the decision to call time on his career.

As we all know it’s not the first time the former club captain made the call to quit the game. Back in 2008 after he was released from Newcastle United and unable to find a club that would sign him, Carr announced his retirement from football. But less than a year later in February 2009, Blues took the leap and offered him an initial one month contract after a short trial with the club.

The powerful defender impressed then manager Alex McLeish and was rewarded with a contract which took him until the end of the 2009/10 season, where he was an integral part of a side that gained promotion to the Premier League.

Things just got better for Carr, being named club captain the right-back lead his side on a fantastic run, culminating in a ninth place finish – the highest Blues have ever finished in England’s top flight and a great achievement for a newly promoted club.

The following season saw the day the club will never forget; the Carling Cup victory over Arsenal, a game in which Carr excelled himself, and proved to be a true leader – as if we didn’t have enough proof already.

Although Blues couldn’t manage to stave off relegation that season, Carr’s achievements cannot be overshadowed by that feat. In his four and a half years in the team he has allowed himself to become a club legend. He is a man we have missed since he was sidelined last summer, and a figure that epitomizes the club’s passion and belief.

His blazing runs down the flank, his infamous 'wave' to the Villa fans, his match winning tackles and clearances: Carr is a model professional who gave his all to the club and I can only thank him for what he has achieved in his time here, and the new heights he took the club to.

 

We're On Our Way

I remember last season standing on my chair with a couple of thousand other Bluenoses, singing “we are unbeatable” with scarves and arms aloft after witnessing one of the performances of the season against Everton in the F.A Cup. At that moment, I didn't think I could be more proud of this set of players: an unbeaten run, handfuls of brilliant performances, a great cup run still on the go and Premier League status all but retained. Pretty hard to get any better, I thought. This season they proved to me, and thousands of others, that it could.

It all started on that cold night in August where just under 6,000 Bluenoses turned up to watch us play Rochdale in the second round of the Carling Cup. We don't exactly have a brilliant record in the past few years so when Rochdale went 1-0 up it seemed like same old, same old. Never did I imagine at that point, that just six months later, Birmingham City would be walking out at Wembley.

Even when we comfortably beat MK Dons 3-1, the thought of a Carling Cup final didn't even begin to enter my mind. We could have got more that night, especially considering we scored three goals in ten minutes, but it was convincing enough – although, still not convincing enough for me that I started to believe we would make the final – far from it.

In the next game, against Brentford, we were two minutes from being knocked out. It's strange to think that if Kevin Phillips hadn't scored that last minute equaliser Wembley would still just be a dream. Thinking back to it now, he is the reason why we are here. Sure, those battling performances in the three games that followed against Villa and then twice against West Ham were the key to our success, but had Super Kev not been in the right place at the right time – like he so often is – then we wouldn't have even got to the quarter final stage.

The penalty shoot out in that game was nerve racking enough but the draw for the quarter finals was just about as scary. I knew ours and Villa's numbers so as soon as theirs was pulled out I knew we had them. And then for a whole month, everything leading up to the 1st December was about the big derby. It wasn't going to be a game in which both sides could come out quite happy with a draw and the bragging rights and blushes could be put on hold: it was a game that someone had to win. So with three potential banana skins averted, we had a quarter final tie with our nearest but definitely not dearest rivals.

Fortunately, it was to be our night, and I think it's safe to say the match on the 1^st December couldn't have gone better. The fact we won it within the last ten minutes too with no way back for them made it all the more sweeter. Despite events being marred by the aftermath of the match, we were in the semi-finals, and we could start to dream of a Carling Cup Final becoming a reality after one of the best nights at St. Andrews for many years. Walking back from the match everyone was getting texts: "You've got West Ham!" read the one I received, and that was the start of the build up to two enormous games in which we finally triumphed.

I think that when you're just two games from Wembley you really, really start to believe. You have to – or the team never will. It was like that last season in the FA Cup, and although we faltered then we were determined to go all the way this season. Despite losing the first leg against West Ham in circumstances we'd rather put behind us, we were still confident that the home leg would see us score enough to book us a place at Wembley on the 27^th of February. I'm not sure as many Bluenoses still had that same belief when we went in 1-0 down at half time at St. Andrews, meaning we were 3-1 behind on aggregate. An impossible task for some, but if there's one thing you can never take away from this battling bunch of players is their spirit and their belief that they can – and that they will.

And then the second half performance that we should be famous for by now came. And true to the anthem sung at them numerous times every game, they kept right on to the end of the road. Lee Bowyer's goal gave everyone a lift; Roger Johnson's goal gave everyone belief; and Craig Gardner's goal made it all come true. I cannot tell you how it felt when that final whistle went. It was a mixture of relief, adrenaline, excitement and pride. Singing 'Que Sera Sera' for a good few minutes after the final whistle only added to the emotion of what was happening. We'd done it. We'd go to the Carling Cup Final and booked a place at Wembley. Forget about beating Villa being one of the best nights down St. Andrews: this was the best night at St. Andrews. The best.

And now I'm sitting here, typing this, just one day before the Carling Cup Final with the biggest smile on my face. All preparation has been done now, all the talking will cease after tonight, and all it comes down to is 90 minutes of football in which we hope to come out on top of.

I can't put it into words what it would mean to this club to win on Sunday. I wouldn't say that we 'deserve' to win it, but you try living a lifetime of disappointment and living in the shadow of others, and then even to be reminded by every single team you play that “you've never won fuck all.” It's all laughed off and classed as banter at the time, because that's who we are. We enjoy supporting Blues... well, you have to don't you? We've learnt to laugh at ourselves because otherwise we'd cry. Those stupid things that could happen “only at Blues” are what make us, us. Our Brummie humour, our ability to stare adversity right in the face and tell it where to get off, and of course our belief in our team.

And belief is what has got us here. Like I mentioned before: if you don't believe, you'll never do it. When a chance like a Carling Cup Final came around as a club we had to take that opportunity, grasp it by both hands and say "you know what, we can do this." We had the chance of Wembley last season but fell at the final hurdle against Portsmouth; last month we put that right by finally booking a place at the home of English football – because after everything last season, the blood, sweat and tears the players gave for the shirt: the least they deserve is a day out at Wembley.

But the thing is, we don't just want it to be a day out. We want to win it just as much as Arsenal do, maybe more in fact. We've done relegations, we've done promotions, we've done establishing ourselves, but now we're about to go into the cup final business again. But to win this would be brilliant. It would give the whole club a massive lift and give us something to shout about. To a lot of you it's “only the Carling Cup”; to Arsenal it's a stop to the trophy drought and the chance to get a really annoying monkey off their back; but to us it's something major for the City as a whole. It's not just a day out for us, it's a real chance to win something.

All the talk in the build up has been about Arsenals six year trophy drought. For a top team I suppose that is quite a long time to wait, but for a team like us who have endured a long trophy-less 48 years, six is nothing. That's why I believe it means a little bit more to us than it does to Arsenal. Just a little bit. And if you don't believe me, take a look at the full time whistles at both Arsenal v Ipswich and Blues v West Ham. Now, you watch those and then tell me what club it means more too. The club with the fans and players who are walking around applauding; or the club whose fans are hugging random strangers next to them, and the players who are taking part in a mass grope-hug going absolutely mental.

You never get handed opportunities: you always have to work for them. Some people say we had an easy cup run, but lets not forget we had three potential banana skins (one of which was two minutes away from knocking us out) before we had to play our local rivals and then two legs against fierce relegation rivals who had beat Manchester United 4-0 to get the privilege of being in the semi final. What we did was no easy task, especially because we were 3-1 down in a semi-final we one point. We were out of it. But it took passion, bottle and a whole lot of fight, and that's something we have that not a lot of other teams have. The one thing you can't deny us is our fighting spirit that got us our deserved place in the Carling Cup Final.

We are the underdogs in this match. But a lot of the time it's better to be that. No one in this country thinks we can do this other than ourselves. A lot of people hope we can do it, but that's their hearts speaking. In their heads they know – or think they know – that it will be Arsenal's day. I can tell you for a fact it won't go like that. Any big game which Blues are involved in is never straight forward for either team, and Arsenal's result the other night against Leyton Orient should only strengthen our mentality to believe that this can be done.

A win the the Carling Cup final. That would be for the media who have already written us off before the game has even started. It would be especially for the London press who already have their headlines written about how Arsenal sailed to triumph against the hapless Birmingham City. It will be for all those who don't believe that a small team could possibly deny Wenger and his boys a chance at their “much deserved” first piece of silverware in six years. But most importantly, for our club, it's fans and everyone to do with it, it would be a phenomenal achievement that would make even the toughest men shed a tear.

To the fans; just enjoy it. Opportunities like this don't come around too often. Sing till you lose your voice, cry until you have no tears left to cry, and cheer your team on to a victory that they deserve. Give the players everything you have because I know they will give us everything they have. Don't give up because they will be fighting for every ball our there, and they want it just was much as we do.

To the manager, McLeish, and all his staff; thank you for getting us this far. A date at Wembley is a massive achievement and will be a day to remember for all Bluenose there... but to win the trophy at the end of it would be even more special. After events last season a Wembley date was something that would have topped it off, it doesn't matter that it's a year late, all that matters is that we have a real chance and thank you for getting us there.

To the players; good luck. There really is nothing more to say that hasn't already been said. If you fight for everything, give 200%, play through all kinds of different pain barriers and come so close to sweating blood it hurts, then you will come out on top. You have a chance to do what every boy dreams of and that is lift a trophy above your head at Wembley in front of 31,000 adoring supporters and plenty of stunned media, not to mention the pissed off prawn sandwich brigade. You have a chance not only to win something for yourselves, but for your club too. All we're asking is for you to play like you did in the unbeaten run last season; for you to put in 'a second half performance' for the whole 90 minutes. Maybe we can make history.

It's a long, long road and this is one of the joys we will find along it to make up for all those years of sorrow. Having the memories of the occasion is one thing, but having your name engraved into history is another.

Keep Right On

___

"I can't guarantee that we will win it but I can guarantee that we believe we can."
Alex McLeish

"I just can’t wait for the occasion. The feeling you get from walking out at a final, nothing beats it, with our 30,000-odd fans there too, it should be incredible."
Barry Ferguson

"Even us as a team, you're thinking that we're coming on the blind side. But that's what makes this extra special, and that it's been so long for the club. We deserve it, you know, we've worked so hard to get here."
Lee Bowyer

"I want to go out there and do the club proud."
Seb Larsson

"We will go there and try and win the game. It's a one-off, you never know what can happen. We've certainly earned the right to get to the final. It's whether we can give a good performance."
Barry Ferguson

"I will be watching and I really hope Birmingham do it, and go one better than we did all those years ago."
Darren Purse

"We are in charge of our own destiny and if we play the right game, I'm sure we will come up trumps."
Cameron Jerome

"Hopefully come six o'clock on Sunday we can bring the cup back."
Barry Ferguson

"We're going there to win, make no mistake."
Alex McLeish

Thinking of Wembley

I think we should have guessed what the game would turn out like when kick off went wrong. Or when Newcastle went 1-0 up after a minute and forty seconds.. What really did it for me though, was when Stephen Carr nearly impaled someone sitting in the Family Stand when he angrily threw a pitch fork over the advertising hoardings. In short: tonight just wasn't our night.

Going one nil down so early on in the game is real confidence knock, especially to a team with one eye on Wembley and the other on not picking up any injuries. But after that early blip, we pretty much ran the rest of the first half. We had the majority of the possession and were getting in good places, but we just couldn't find that killer ball and we're lacking any form of shot on target. But then again, so were Newcastle, it was just lucky breaks and bad defending from Blues than got them their early goal that proved very costly for the home side, and very beneficial to the travelling Geordies.

The flag happy linesmen didn't really help the shots on target total though, who rose their arm pretty much every time Zigic went near the ball. Surely he's not that stupid to be offside that many times, but I guess we won't know until we see the game again... which I doubt many of us will be doing any time soon!
Obafemi Martins looked lively again like he did in the Stoke game at the weekend, but lacked the cutting edge. His control is brilliant though: if only Cameron Jerome had that touch! He seemed to overdo it at times too, much like team mate David Bentley, who strangely won man of the match. He wasn't at the races tonight and went missing at times during the first forty-five, and when he did get the ball, granted he put in some decent crosses and did some good running, but sometimes he just overdoes it and tries to do too many fancy turns: just get it in the box Bentley!


It was a pity the first half had to end, as Blues were the team in control and the team who shaded the half; despite lack of real chances as other than a Gardner shot after a nice passing move went just over, we didn't really have too much to shout about. The second half again started badly for Blues as they went two goals behind after a goal from Leon Best. One goal, we may have been able to do, but two seemed pretty impossible - and the rest of the game proved this.

Heads dropped as Newcastle began to seize the game into their control. Blues tried to get back into it but with no avail. Roger Johnson almost did a Wayne Rooney when the ball fell to him just outside the area but it fell agonisingly wide of the post, and the defender walked away to chants of 'Rooney! Rooney!' from the Tilton. Zigic also came close a number of times, especially with a header that went just over the bar, and Roger Johnson again came close when he headed the ball hard from a corner, only for his effort to fall straight to Harper in the Newcastle goal.

With 20 minutes to go Blues began to surge forward more, with Cameron Jerome - who came on earlier in the half in place of Martins - causing problems. A few corners, offsides and Newcastle falls (over thin air) later, and it seemed that two goals from the home side really was too much to ask, and the game finished 0-2 to the away side - only the third home defeat all season for Blues.


The Premier League can be pushed to one side for a moment now as we have the FA Cup game against Sheffield Wednesday at the weekend, and a Wembley date the Sunday after. Nothing really went our way tonight and credit where its due - Newcastle simply wanted it more than we did, although we had enough possession to create, we just didn't.

Winning three on the bounce just isn't our thing anyway...

Full Time: Birmingham City 0-2 Newcastle United

Wembley

Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat. It's almost always the other way round. The amount of times we've gone one or two goals up, only to finish the game with a draw or even a defeat... take Bolton at the start of the season for example; 2-0 up, Bolton down to ten men, and we go and draw it 2-2. Last night made up for all the times we'd done that, in fact it pretty much made up for all the hurt we've felt in the past five or so years.

There was one thing we didn't want to and that was to concede first. So obviously, being Blues, that's exactly what we did. We didn't close Cole down and he struck the ball very well, and the ball crept past Foster into the net. On the one night we wanted Blues to perform, it looked like we hadn't turned up. 'Just once' i thought, 'just once can we have our night.'

At half time I was standing with some of my mates and we were all pretty depressed. We all thought we'd be able to score one goal, but two... we didn't think we possible, especially as the one thing we've been pretty poor at for a while now is scoring goals. Little did we know Blues were about to put on the performance of their lives.

We threw everything at West Ham second half. Everything. The kitchen sink, the cat, the dog. Everything. It reminded me of last season when we used to put everything on the line; or against Chelsea this season when we were defending that one goal lead for about 70 minutes. It was brilliant and exciting; but at the same time it was the most nervous I and many others have ever been. But that first goal by Bowyer. That relieved some of the nerves. The feeling when that went in was immense. It really was. It was a superb strike and it really set us on our way, everyone in the ground could sense what was coming next.


And, plenty of attacks, corners and decent Green saves later, it came. Bowyer's corner found Roger Johnson head, which found the back of the net (the ball, not his head. I can't word that bit right) and the place erupted. I mean it really erupted. You know when you go so mental you don't even know what you're doing, and you're cheering so loud you know any minute your voice will go. And the stand was bouncing. And the fans were all on their feet going absolutely - pardon my French - fucking mental. And the West Ham fans couldn't believe it. Neither could we. It was 2-2 on aggregate, it was game on, and we were taking this one right to the wire: the Blues way. We nearly did it in normal time though, Craig Gardner hit the post in the last few seconds. It so almost crept in. Almost.


But we just kept the momentum going from the second half into extra time, and that's when it happened. The ball was passed long to a West Ham player. Stephen Carr read the pass and ran. He ran so fast I'm not sure how he had the energy to after running so much in the second half. But he was so determined to get there first. And he stole the ball. And he ran. And he passed it to Gardner. And that's when it happened. That's when Craig Gardner, the Bluenose, the lifelong Birmingham City supporter, scored the winning goal. Now if you think the celebrations for Roger Johnson's goal were mental, they were nothing compared to this. I will never forget that moment. 4 minutes into extra time and we were ahead. We just needed to keep it that way.


We had so many other chances to score and to create. As did West Ham, but our defence were so, so resilient they just couldn't break us down. With a few minutes to go a man in front of us started signing about Wembley. About five of us turned to him and shouted "NOT YET! NOT YET!" because we knew this was Blues and that anything could happen. But he was right. And with a minute to go, the whole ground was belting out que sera sera, and at that moment Howard Webb blew his whistle, every one just let everything go. There were tears, there were... well, just about every emotion under the sun. Pure relief, absolute delirium, just everything and more. Standing on our chairs singing 'que sera sera' is a moment I will never, ever forget. Because we did it. We're going to Wembley.


I think 'the Blues way' is the only way we could have done it, It was never going to be easy because it never is with Blues. We should have know that we'd do it in the end, that we'd be too much for West Ham, but I guess part of you isn't too sure when to believe in Blues because of how many times they've let you down in the past. But if last night taught me one thing; it's to never, ever doubt Birmingham City.

A Carling Cup final date at Wembley with Arsenal awaits us. The best thing about it is that we've got nothing to lose. Everyone expects Arsenal to win, so it's great that we have no pressure. All we have to do is go out there, do our thing and see what happens. The worst that can happen is that we get runners up medals. So for the love of God, everyone: just enjoy it, it won't come around very often. I hope you all had a brilliant night last night. See you all at Wembley.

Full Time: Birmingham City 3-1 West Ham (AGG: 4-3)

90 Minutes

To most, It's "only the Carling cup." It's the mickey mouse cup as soon as your out of it. It's the cup that's "disrespected" by the bigger teams because they want to concentrate on "more important games." But when you're 90 minutes away from Wembley, it doesn't matter who you are - be it Arsenal or Birmingham - the Carling Cup is the most important thing in your life at that precise moment.

All I've ever wanted is to see my team play at Wembley. I don't care what circumstances it's under; be it F.A cup or play off final, I really don't mind. The only thing I've ever wanted, other than glory, loads of wins and brilliant players, is to see my team walk out and Wembley and to be there to witness it. I've never thought about the score or worried about what I'd do if we lost. I know a couple of Sheffield United fans who said the play off final was the best day of their lives even though they lost, because their dream to see their team play at Wembley came true. Same as all the Villa fans I know - they said it was brilliant. They've been there twice, they've lost twice; yet those two games were two of the best days of their lives.

And I want that. That is all I want. Right now, that's all any Blues fan wants. And we're just 90 minutes away from it. And not just 90 minutes away from Wembley like we were last season, but actually 90 minutes away from a cup final. That's why it'll hurt more if we lose. Last season it was an F.A Cup semi final at stake. Sure, it was at Wembley and it would have been brilliant,. But it wasn't to be, and it wasn't a final either. This is a final. Win this game on Wednesday, and we're 90 minutes away from winning a trophy. An actual trophy. Silver and everything. Proper medals to go around the players' necks - one's with 'winner' printed on them. Fireworks. Open top buses. Glory. Our moment. A little bit of history. The lot.

But let's not get carried away; we've still got Wednesday to contend with yet. West Ham are 2-1 up on aggregate, so technically they have the advantage. But what we have on our side is a home tie under the lights with a full ground. You can't buy atmospheres like that, especially at Blues, and I know the fans will be doing everything to get behind the team because of how much we all want this.

So, the team. This is aimed directly at you now: do anything you can to win. None of us care how you do it, honestly, we just want you to do it. Win by two clear goals and we don't even need to go to extra time and penalties. Win 2-0 and we've done it. Those two goals can come however you please; off Jerome's left heel; deflected in from a free kick; Gardner sliding in at the last minute; even an own goal from Upson. We don't care. They don't have to be stunning goals, they just have to be goals. And say we go 1-0 down, we pick ourselves up and go at it again. If you have to score three goals, you're going to have to score three goals. If we go 2-0 down, we're going to expect you to score four goals, or even five. Because we really, really want this.

As a club we've never really won much, as we so often get reminded by our nearest but definitely not dearest neighbours. So this is something we've wanted for years now, and I'm sure West Ham want it just as much as we do. I'm sure plenty of their fans are saying the same thing as I'm saying right now. I'm sure their players know how important an occasion it is too, especially as they are 2-1 up from the first leg. But we've got to play like we want it more.

The only thing I'm sure about on Wednesday night is that you'll give us a performance to be proud of. I know I can be confident of that. Lets just make sure that when that full time whistle goes, I'm proud of our achievement of getting to Wembley and not just the fighting, yet losing, display we put on.

We need that passion and with that we displayed so many times last season more than ever now, and we need it Wednesday night. Forget the league for now; that doesn't matter this week, we can think about that again another time. For now, all any Blues fan and anyone associated with this great football club wants is to get to Wembley. We're closer than we've been in years to a cup final now, don't let this great opportunity slip through your hands Blues. Grasp it as hard as you can and do not let go.

Lets hope next time you read anything from me on here, It's some jumbled nonsense about the best night of my life, and a trip to Wembley to look forward to.

Que sera sera and all that.

Observations

There's one thing you don't want to do when you go to Old Trafford, and that's concede inside the first five minutes. Unfortunately for Blues, we did just that, and that's when you know the next 90 minutes will be even more of an uphill struggle than you expected.

It may have been a different story had we not conceded so early. Yes, we still would have lost. I don't think many teams go to United expecting it to be easy or to get all three points, you can hope, but the reality is it probably isn't going to happen. But conceding so early on gave United the rest of the game to score even more, which of course they did. Two nil, then three nil before half time. And couple more after to take the grand total up to five before they decided they didn't want any more.

But enough about the cockneys, lets talk about Blues. The team with passion, fight drive, desire... that has gone missing this season. We knew it would be hard, we knew we'd be in a relegation battle, but were it not for the fact we were in a Carlin Cup semi final and on the verge of Wembley, I think many a Bluenose would be searching for the rope. No, I'm joking. We've been through all this shite before and we knew we'd have to go through it again. It's part and parcel of being a Bluenose and we wouldn't have it any other way... although once in a while it'd be nice to have a little change.


Now, onto what I actually wanted to talk about in this rather lengthy blog post. Just a few observations from the match. So, number one: we miss Scott Dann. I think everyone knew we'd miss him, but not how much we would. Although Johnson has a gob on him, Dann comands the back line throuhout the game and that's what we miss. In the past two games the defence sometimes look worried, confused and un-organised. Also, Scott Dann's replacement. We have a perfectly good experienced centre back on the bench in Jiranek who we brought in as cover should one of our centre backs get injured. Yet we're using Ridgewell instead, who is much better at left back than he is a centre back, even though by trade he's a centre back. And we're playing Murphy on the left who is a good left back but not as good as Ridgewell. This might confuse you, but I know what I'm getting at: play Jiranek in the centre. We bought him for this.

Next observation; Hleb. He is a fantastic player and some of the football he plays makes me want to shed tears of joy. However; what we need right now is players who will fight for absolutely everything; track back whenever needed; and run like someone has just shoved a rocket up their arse to help out a team mate. Hleb doesn't do that. Hleb will give everything going forward, but tracking back, his body language seems to say 'my job is to attack, someone else can do the defending job.' He is without doubt a brilliant player, but in a relegation battle he might not be someone we need. Just a thought.

Staying on the subject of classy midfielders, lets talk about David Bentley. He's great, isn't he? It's such a shame he's cup tied because we could do with him on Wednesday. His speed, skill and trickery; along with his excellent crossing and distance-shooting is just what we need. A bit of creativity to get us our of trouble. Something different. He offers you all of this and I just want to thank Spurs for letting us have him on loan! Brilliant.


Observation number three: I thought Jordon Mutch had a good début today. It must have been tough for him being thrown in at the deep end and being handed the task of keeping world class players at bay, but credit to him he did well, and he is a player we need to keep hold of because he will be big.

This Larsson fiasco is getting a bit silly now, isn't it? Revelations in the paper coming out that he was told he could go, told he had to stay, told this, that and the other, and it's all quite confusing and makes my head hurt. What is clear though, is that he doesn't want to be here any more. You saw that when he came on. He was okay, he will still work for us when we play him, but he won't put that heart in that he did before. He doesn't love us any more and a lot of the fans don't like him either. I'm not sure what's gone on, but I think we should let it die down now, because he's probably going to be here until the end of the season.

Although we lost 5-0, it doesn't really feel like it. I think if I had been lsitening or watching at home it would have been more painful, but when you're actually at the game it doesn't feel quite as bad. The Blues fans were excellent today. Humorous as ever and in full voice, it made me proud to be a bluenose. And 5-0 down, I looked around Old Trafford and it made me think how happy I am to support Blues instead of a team like United. Sure, we don't win everything, well, anything. We're in a relgatation battle. We'll never win the Premier League. But shit me, I have so much fun supporting this team. At 5-0 up, United fans were leaving. Leaving!! Christ, we're winning 2-0 and the whole ground stays to applaud the players off the pitch. 5-0, fuck me, we'd be partying all night long. I guess that's why I like supporting a smaller club.

And we certainly know how to have a laugh. The Norwich chants were brilliant, as was the look on the United fans' faces when we were cheering corners and singing "we're gonna win the league" - I wouldn't swap that for anything. This is what it's like to be City, and I for one absolutely love this club.

So, forget this game. It was coming, we all knew it, but the 1,800 blues there yesterday: we all had fun, didn't we? And this is to all blues fans now: we're all looking forward to Wednesday, aren't we? Forget losing 5-0 to a great team (who I haven't really praised throughout this - United were brilliant yesterday. Period.) Lets look forward to Wednesday. We're 90 minutes from Wembley, lets do this.

Full Time: Manchester United 5-0 Birmingham City

The City Is Ours

That took a while didn't it? Too long if you ask me. I'd almost forgot what it felt like to beat them, but I was sliftly reminded just how good it feels. Even the day after; the gloating, the smile on your face, the holding your head high, the banter with the Villa fans and the look on their faces as they realise there's nothing they can say back to you. We did it.

A full St. Andrews witnessed a, not brilliant, but definitely resilient Blues performance last night. It was a great game and definitely a great way to show everyone what Midlands football is all about (minus the scenes at the end of the match, but we'll come to that mini rant later).

The first goal in any derby game is always crucial, and luckily enough we got it through a great Seb Larsson penalty - low, hard, sent the keeper the wrong way and most importantly found the back of the net. 1-0 Blues, absolutely brilliant. The place went mental, the crowd erupted and the noise was deafening.


Some time later we scored a second, only to be denied by the 'interfering with play rule.' This is one thing the FA need to clarify. It's such a fancy rule no one knows what's going on any more: in my opinion it should be changed to if you're offside, you're offside. That way no one gets confused and teams aren't helped or hindered by decisions.

In a quick change of events, Villa equalised through a man whose name does not deserve a place on my blog and I will not give him it either. There's not many people I could say I hate, in fact there's only two things: Aston Villa and that man.

I wouldn't say we were the best team in the game: for large parts of the game I was convinced Villa were going to win it. I was preparing myself for another heartbreak; for another let down; for another miserable trek back home in the snow. But this time it was our time. It was our night and it was our turn to show people how we do it. And we did.


In the derbies last season, it was Villa who killed our dreams. It was Villa who scored in the closing minutes of the game to deny us any chance of a comeback; but this time the tables were turned. Jerome fed a ball in the air to Zigic who, challenged, looped the ball over Friedel who couldn't save it. Zigic: relieved, Blues: ecstatic, Villa: crushed. The fatal blow had been dealt by the team who had had to endure all the taunts over the years, and that's why the victory wasn't just a victory: it was such a sweet, sweet moment that no one will forget in a hurry.

I am extremely proud of what Blues did, and I find it unfortunate that a minority marred it for the majority. I do not in any way condone the Blues fans that ran over to the Villa fans to taunt them and sing at them: but I do understand why. It's hard to put a fan of another club in the shoes of a Blues fan, but if you ask us kindly enough we'll all tell you how they Villa fans have made us feel over the years, and how much they've mocked us. It was our turn. Maybe the fans didn't go about it in the right way, but they were blinded by the fact we'd just beat our local rivals for the first time in years.


Now onto the more serious stuff: the flares. I find it amusing how the media labelled Birmingham as the flare throwiers and the chair chuckers. I watched the scenes unfold, and I watched the first flarwes being thron by Villa fans (who later admitted it was them who brought them - case closed) and I watched them rip up seats and throw them. Not that i condone Blues throwing them back - both fans are as bad as each other in my opinion - but I'm fed up of the media blaming it all on Birmingham because of our past.

Also what I found hilarious and not even wroth defending, was the fact we were blamed for not getting the World Cup in 2018. Brilliant. That is class. Us Blues and Villa fans have been making jokes all day about it - because it really is brilliant, isn't it? Lets ignore everything else wrong with the country and pinpoint one incident that happened the night before the announcement, when a lot of people had already confided to the fact Russia were probably going to win it. Genius. The Midlands derby? The perfect scapegoat.

I don't want it to mar what was a great victory, but the facts need to be said and the people on England need to move on with their lives. The most important thing to come from yesterday was the fact we beat our local rivals and we're now two games from Wembley, and for me, that's the only thing that matters right now.

Full Time: Birmingham City 2-1 Aston Villa