For years and years, games with Birmingham City tended to be low scoring affairs (in fact, I think I’m right in saying that we failed to score at St Andrews in four of five consecutive visits), but that’s all changed recently with the last three games between the teams at Cardiff City Stadium finishing 3-2, 4-2 and 3-2 in our favour, while, after a 1-1 draw in 19/20, we won 4-0 there last season. So, with us having two wins and a draw in the three away matches played under Steve Morison’s management, there are reasons to be optimistic about tomorrow’s match.
Here’s seven questions about tomorrow’s opponents with the answers to be posted on here on Sunday.
60s. Born in a place which shares its name with the surname of someone who can usually be found at the same place every Wednesday lunchtime, this Scot started his career recording expected figures while wearing black and white and was the youngest member of a Cup Final winning team. When he moved on, his transfer fee helped pay for a stand at his old club’s ground and he didn’t take long to establish himself at his new club where he was part of a team that lost a local derby Cup Final. A contract dispute led to his transfer to Birmingham and he stayed two years, playing less than fifty league matches for them, but he enjoyed his tussles with City, winning both of them. His final club saw him becoming a child, but he never played a match for them and left the game at the age of just twenty seven. Who am I describing?
70s. I make it that the number of times he faced City as a Birmingham player ran into double figures spread over almost a decade with his biggest win against us being recorded in the last of those matches. Definitely a midlander by birth, his testimonial at Birmingham (he only scored once for them) came against his home town team. Apart from a time as an apprentice at Aston Villa, he never played for another British club, but did turn out in the woods and got a kick out of playing for the other side he represented. Who is he?
80s.Stick Big Nose and Red head in brig and come up with long serving City man who was a loser against Birmingham in this decade. (5,7)
90s. Awful sounding mixture of white powder, porridge and, by the sound of it, protein, all with a QPR flavour, turns our for City against Birmingham during this decade!
00s. Eye blower mix breaks City hearts (3,6).
10s. Commitment to load fuel?
20s. Which member of the current Birmingham squad has a parent club that has never played a game?
Answers.
60s. Cammie Fraser was born in Blackford and was the youngest member of the Dunfermline team that beat Celtic in the 1961 Scottish Cup Final. A £24,000 move to Aston Villa helped improve Dundermline’s ground and he was in the team beaten by Birmingham in the 1963 League Cup Final.Fraser then moved to Birmingham after a dispute over wages at Villa. He was in the Birmingham teams which recorded a double over City in 65/66, but he was unable to keep his place in the side and became a “Bairn” at Falkirk in 1967,leaving the club a year later having not played a match for them.
70s. Ray Martin’s only goal for Birmingham came in a home game with Hull. His last appearance against us came in our 5-2 FA Cup defeat in 1974, the year before Martin (who had a testimonial against Wolves in 1971) left for Portland Timbers and he then Minnesota Kicks.
80s. Roger Gibbins was in the City side beaten 2-0 by Birmingham at St Andrews in May 1985.
90s. Charlie Oatway has the first names of the 1973 QPR squad as his middle names – he played for us in a 1-0 home defeat by Birmingham in December 1994.
00s. Current Birmingham manager Lee Bowyer scored a very late goal to deny City a win in a 1-1 draw at St. Andrews in January 2009.
10s. Will Packwood played for Birmingham in both games against City in 12/13.
20s. Riley McGree is on loan to Birmingham from Charlotte FC, a franchise based in Charlottesville which, according to Wikipedia, is expected to play its first game in 2022 having been granted their franchise three years earlier.
