Shaping Up

After playing catch-up with the rest of the league for the majority for the season, Birmingham City have now found their true place in the league after finally catching up with the league games that had to be postponed due to Europa League commitments. After a well-fought 0-0 draw at a very snowy St. Andrews on Saturday evening against second place Southampton, whose necks Blues are now breathing down, last night saw a slightly sluggish but nonetheless deserved one nil victory against Portsmouth courtesy of a late well-taken Nathan Redmond goal.

Blues are now in a terrific position, sitting within touching distance of West Ham and Southampton with the equal best goal-difference in the league - plus 20 - a positive stat which they share with the second place Saints.

After a summer of turmoil and uncertainty, players and managers leaving the nest and administration and Carson Yeung’s trial floating overhead like a daunting storm cloud; Birmingham have once again exceeded expectations of their fans whom expected, and would have been content with, a mid-table-to-top-half finish. However, a Europa league campaign to be proud of, an unbeaten home record still intact and no losses since December 2011 paint quite a different story for the Midlands side and fans, players and manager alike can be immensely proud of the achievements so far - and all on such a shoe string budget as well.

After managing to keep a small team relatively injury free and only losing two players in Jean Beausejour and Liam Ridgewell in the January transfer window that has just slammed shut, Blues can consider this season an immense success – and it’s not even over yet. Sitting pretty in third place in the Championship, there is still a long way to go, and where Blues are concerned you know there will be twists, turns and probably a lot of surprises yet to come.

One thing’s for sure though; whatever happens at the end of the season Chris Hughton and his squad can be proud of their marvellous efforts. A team of bosman signings and ‘leftovers’ from the relegation rubble at the end of last season have shone in this league with attacking football, lots of goals and a rock solid defence.

As we enter the last few months of the season, one mistake now can spell a torrent of bad results and a swift fall down the table; yet at the same time, successive victories can push you right up there into the automatic promotion places or cement a play-off place for the time being at least. Mistakes cost dear at this time of the season; let’s hope it’s not Blues that are making them, but capitalising on the mistakes made by those around them.

Poor Form

It’s safe to say our staggeringly awful away form of last season has managed to continue into this season, and today was no exception. Against an in-form Southamton it was always going to be a tough game, but 4-1 shows exactly where our weaknesses lie.

I’ll allow no ‘but we played on Thursday’ excuses because five changes were made by Chris Hughton to the starting eleven at St. Mary’s this afternoon, and we made a surprising bright start with early chances all going Blues’ way. Just two minutes on the clock and Jean Beausejour’s ball into the box almost found Chris Wood, but the in-form striker was judged to be offside. Two minutes later and Blues were at it again; this time it was Marlon King with good work on the ball, who fed it into the path of Jonathan Spector; picking up the ball but shooting wide from distance.

Blues were to rue their missed chances when on eleven minutes Steven Cadlwell clumsily brought down Rickie Lambert in the area and the referee awarded a penalty which the striker calmly converted to put the home side one-nil up. The goal seemed to shell-shock Blues who had, up until then, had more than their fair share of chances, and Guly Do Prado pilled more misery onto the visiting side on the twenty-one minute mark, scoring from close range to put The Saints 2-0 up.

After such a promising start it was turning out to be an afternoon to forget for Birmingham, and on 34 minutes they found themselves 3-0 down and treading water when Adam Lallana fired home. Sluggish in defence, it was no more than Blues deserved, and it was turning out to be a harsh lesson learnt for Chris Hughton’s charges.

Never to be set back though, the second half saw glimpses of a Blues fight back. Just three minutes into the second half a free kick was awarded just outside the box and Chris Wood duly stepped up and fired the dead-ball home to give the 821 travelling Blues fans some hope at last.Stephen Carr almost put his side within reaching distance of a come-back when he hit a dazzling shot from 25 yards out, which frustratingly hit the post.

But the poor performance from the rest of the team ensured any points were out of reach for the Blue Boys, and their afternoon of disappointment was complete when Richard Chaplow beat the offside trap to make it 4-1 Southampton and finish the afternoon’s footballing lesson.

Last season there was one whole division between League One Southampton and Premier League Birmingham City, but this afternoon showed how things can chance so quickly in a small space of time, and if you asked an outsider who they thought played in League One last season you’d put your money on them saying Birmingham.

Nevertheless, it’s not all doom and gloom. We’ve played some refreshing football this season and had some positive performances so far, but this style of play leaves us open at the back and liable to ship a few more goals than we’re used to. We are adjusting to change. Adding the extra European games and the fact that our squad was ripped to pieces during the summer, it’s not been the suicide start that some are portraying it to be. Come back in ten games time and we’ll have a clearer picture of what is going on then, in the mean time I’ll support Chris Hughton and his decisions, as well as the players and theirs.



Full Time: Southampton 4-1 BLUES
Goal Scorers: Lambert (11) Do Prado (21) Lallana (34) Wood (48) Chaplow (78)
Next Up: Manchester City Away – Carling Cup