Car Crash

When you concede in under ten minutes away from home it's always going to be a struggle, especially when it's against an in-form Liverpool side. And then when you go 2-0 down in 20 minutes, losing your goalkeeper in the process, you start to realise it might not be your day. By the time the fifth, and final, goal went in you really, really knew it wasn't our day.

The first by Maxi was handed to him on a plate when Foster failed to hold onto a fierce shot from Spearing and Liverpool went 1-0 up after just seven minutes of play. Never to be shot down though, and to their credit, Blues responded with a large amount of possession but, failing to do anything with it, were knocked back again when Liverpool went on a counter attack and after various blocks the ball eventually ended up in the back of the next courtesy of Dirk Kuyt, leaving Ben Foster in a heap on the floor. The England International played on for another 20 minutes to try and shake the knock off, but in the end had to be replaced by Colin Doyle just before half time.


Carr and Larsson did some good running down the wing in the first half but none of their crosses met anyone in the area, and all in all it was a thoroughly disappointing first half for Blues.

At the beginning of the second half Blues had a handful of chances, with Fahey coming close on a couple of occasions. But again, Blues failed to create with the possession they had and the travelling fans were willing them to just get the ball into the box - especially aiming this at Hleb who seemed to want to pass it into the net instead of shooting from a good possession - you don't play for Arsenal yet!

Liverpool struck again on 66 minutes with Maxi getting his second of the game. Suarez wasn't picked up and was able to loft a lovely ball into the area from the by-line and Maxi was on hand to make it 3-0 to the home side.


If the match wasn't over by then, just under ten minutes later it was. Suarez, again the creator, found Maxi in space and his pass struck the Argentinian. His first time shot was saved by Doyle, but he managed to get the rebound to complete his hat trick.

Blues were in search of a consolation, and with the away fans singing "we only want one goal!" substitutes Bentley and Phillips both produced saves from Reina, but neither could find a way past to Spaniard.

Joe Cole was on hand to pile yet more misery on Blues, scoring Liverpool's fifth goal in the 84th minute, with a shot that sneaked its way under Doyle in the Blues goal to complete a frustrating afternoon for the visiting side.


Conceding eight goals in the space of two goals and only scoring one - which was a penalty - does not making pretty reading (or watching!) but a win next Sunday against Wolves and all will be forgiven!

Full Time: Liverpool 5-0 Birmingham City

To sumarise...

Writing a match report for every game is starting to get a bit boring, so I’ve decided to vary it now. Today I am doing ‘Ten things we learnt today’ - Enjoy!

1. Gone are the days that Liverpool can just turn up and expect to beat teams. If I had to describe them inn one word, it would be ‘ordinary.’ they’re not better than us right now, in fact if you looked at results and the table, we are better than them at this moment in time. They are rather lacklusture, and simply create too little to be competing with the likes of Chelsea and Manchester United.

2. Also, gone are the days where you can walk out the ground after drawing against Liverpool being happy and content with a point. I was disappointed. Honest to God, I was disappointed because we could, and should, have won that.

3. It comes to something when Liverpool have to dive to try and beat you. Lucas being the main culprit. I can see why Liverpool fans don’t like him much; he spent more time diving today than Tom Daley.


4. I’m not sure what it is, but we always seem to be able to nullify Torres when he plays against us. We are the only team Fernando Torres has faced more than once in the Premier league and never scored against. Nice fact for you there. Like last season, Roger Johnson had him in his back pocket today; Fernando Torres was his bitch. It was lovely to watch.

5. Which brings me onto the Roger and Scott for England campaign: Matty Upson and Joleon Lescott are still getting called up. Tell me why this is. Of corse I’m being biased, but tell me two English central defenders, right now, that are better than Dann and Johnson. Today, they were both superb. Absolutely superb.

6. Pepe Reina is brilliant. Without him today, Liverpool would most definitely have lost. The saves he made in the first half, especially from Jerome’s header, were really, really good. At the moment, he’s their best player. Which speaks volumes considering he is their goalkeeper.


7. The best thing Aston Villa ever did (except put Enckleman in goal) was sell us Craig Gardner. I would right a personal letter of thanks to Randy and co. but I wouldn’t want to waste my money on a stamp.

8. The same can be said for Rangers selling us Barry Ferguson. For me, he was probably man of the match today. He is a midfield genius. Everything just revolves around him, and I hope to God he’s at Blues until the end of his career.

9. James McFadden is not lazy. Please, lets stop labeling him as this, because he is a class player. He really is, and today he showed this class. Yes, we wish he’d do it all the time, but that’s what you get with James McFadden: he picks his moments, and today was one of those moments.

10. No team comes to St. Andrews expecting to win anymore. I said at the start this was ’10 things we learnt today’ when in fact I’m saying this and we already knew it, but I’m pointing it out again for the benefit of any fan that thinks otherwise: we will grind and grind and block and block and push and push until those 90 plus minutes are up. The fans will sing their hearts out, taunt your players and make fortress St. Andrews live up to it’s name. You can’t go there expecting to win, in fact, you’re lucky to come away with just a point nowadays, like Liverpool were today. Nearly a year unbeaten at home now, I wonder how long we can go on this run for…

Full Time: Birmingham City 0-0 Liverpool

Footnote: after proof reading I’ve realised how biased this is. Oh well, it’s a different kind of bias to that you witness on the BBC, so I’d be grateful if I were you.

well wasn't that nice

the comeback kings strike again, liam ridgewell saves the day again, etc. you get the jist: birmingham city once again came from behind to get a point, and a point which was probably deserved too.

only two things on interest happened in the first half and it gave me time to figure something out aswell. the first thing that happened was fernando torres spent most of his time sunbathing on the floor. brilliant. he didn't do much else, kuyt was the one i was more impressed with. the next thing was the only real save joe hart had to make in the first half, and what a save it was! maxi shot from close range and it looked like a certain goal, until joe hart pawed it away with a hand for it to hit the crossbar and he jumped up to collect it again. cue: 'england's number one' and a standing ovation from the tilton road end.

and oh yes, the thing i realised; liverpool play very boring football. many people that sit near me commented on this, i come home and it's stated on forums and message boards, and i also got a text from my friend about how boring they were. they pass from side to side. all the time. side. to. side. why? it is quite effective, i'll give them that, but i just would not want to pay to see that every week.. and secondly, they're really quite slow. not the players, i don't think, but just the style of play is slow, (hense why it's boring) until you get to the two upfront. torres and kuyt are good, skillful and quick - i was particularly impressed with kuyt who seemed to be doing most of the running and getting into good positions. torres? not so much. i wasn't suspired when he got substituted, i was surprised however when i got home to find out that liverpool fans were outraged with the substitution.

but the rest of the team were slow, and we succumbed to their style of play in the first half, which was disappointing as we work better at a fast tempo, as it showed when we attacked, because our midfield outran theirs. it was pretty clear that liverpool had come here to get a goaland then defend the points, that was quite easily sussed out. and thats pretty much all that happened in the first half, believe me, match of the day won't be showing much of it.

half time: birmingham 0-0 liverpool

after all that excitement (err) i wasn't much looking forward to the second half. but apparently liverpool were, as they scored after just two minutes: johnson's wayward shot found it's way to steven gerrard - of all the people a ball could fall to in the six yard box, you do not want it to be steven gerrard - and of corse, he scored, what was a very good goal indeed i must say.

blues then woke up, and the fans started to get behind them more as they started to attack more. it was clear that some point we were going to get a goal back, and it came in the 56th minute, with a looping cross from james mcfadden which was turned into the net from not even a yard out by liam ridgewell's midriff. yes, we had a nose last week, and now we have a...

anyway. blues deserved that goal, i would say, in my totally not biased opinion.. and for the rest of the game, it kind of fizzled out into liverpool's style of play, i.e i pretty much wanted to claw my own eyes out. no, i'm kidding, it wasn't that bad; it was quite frustrating really. because liverpool had most of the possession, shots, etc. but our defence could cope with it reasonably well, and when we broke, we broke fast, and you could see us going on to get the winner. and we nearly did, when lee bowyer missed from about 2 yards out with what looked like a simple tap in.

during the second half, you could hear a few rounds of 'cheat cheat cheat' coming from the gil merrick as liverpool players warmed up, and it didn't take many guesses to figure out who exactly was warming up; yes, the pantomime villain of the fixture: david n'gog, who was being reminded of how much of a cheating w... person he was in the reverse fixture in november. he got an ear full of it when he got substituted on aswell and 'he's gonna dive in a minute' rung around the ground whenever he touched the ball.



it was a good performance by blues, and let us not forget: we are unbeaten at home against the top six sides, and that is nothing short of amazing; liam ridgewell with another goal, barry ferguson with another man of the match performance, jerome's first touch is improving with some neat little touches and passes throughout the game, another good team performance and smiles all round from the blues fans! or dancing, if you're name is joe hart..

full time: birmingham 1-1 liverpool (gerrard 37, ridgewell 56)

i told you we'd do it. now bring on the richest club in the world..

next up; manchester city away; 11/04/10