I listened to a podcast which claimed that Birmingham City are currently the worst team in the Championship yesterday. I’m not so sure about that, but, what is undeniable is that they have the worst record in the division in the period since Wayne Rooney was appointed their manager and that Friday’s 2-0 loss at Coventry took their run of consecutive away defeats to nine.
Birmingham visit us tomorrow and, on the face of it, the fixture appears to be a home banker, yet we’ve been playing poorly lately and I don’t think we can take anything for granted. We appear to be limping towards the January transfer window hoping we have enough to maintain our position until we can sign some new players and Aaron Ramsey, hopefully, makes a full recovery from his injury. However, another thing I learned from that podcast was that there are quite a few Championship sides in the same boat as us.
In fact, some of our rivals seem in worse shape when it comes to things like injuries. Apart from a couple of long term injuries and the occasional suspension and non availability, we have had everyone available for selection in recent games. By contrast, Birmingham could be missing eight members of their first team squad tomorrow including former City loanees, Dion Sanderson and Cody Drameh who were both absent on Friday.
Yet, after our last three matches in particular where it has looked so hard for us to mount effective attacks, I’m not confident about tomorrow’s outcome – if we do manage to win, I suspect it will be another dull 1-0.
Anyway, in the meantime, here’s the usual quiz on our upcoming opponent and I’ll post the answers on here on Thursday.
60s. This forward started off with Birmingham, making his debut for them as a seventeen year old. However, he struggled to establish himself during his four years at St. Andrews and was sold on to a team that was a latecomer to the Football League party so to speak, but were doing pretty well at making up for lost time.
However, although he was part of a promotion campaign, it seems that it was decided that he was not up to second tier football and so was let go to the side where he played most games and scored most goals for by a considerable distance.
Once again, a promotion to the second tier soon followed, but, this time, he kept his place in the team and although, just as through all of his career, his goalscoring figures were hardly sensational, his work as a target man in a notoriously low scoring team helped his new club become established in the second level through the seventies. His final move was to Yorkshire to play for another outfit thought of as something of an underdog and he would later have a spell managing them, but who am I describing?
70s. A defender who left the red half of his boyhood city to sign for Birmingham as a youth, he barely missed a game after making his debut as he established himself as a First Division player. Indeed, it was only when he missed months through injuries sustained in a car crash that his progress stalled. After scoring in his comeback game, he carried on as before, but he would eventually leave after more than three hundred appearances, to make an ill fated and short (both in terms of time and distance) move to local rivals. After that, he had a go at wearing claret and blue twice and became a Shayman for a while, without ever recapturing his Birmingham form – appropriately, his one England B cap came in a game played at St. Andrews, can you name him?
80s. Give stew mix to Ely residents and you’ll discover a winger! (5,6)
90s. Mythical beast slayer on the left bank possibly.
00s. Striker in the paddock?
10s. Sounds like an awful lot of money to pay for a notepad!
20s. This current Birmingham player is English, but his one career goal was scored in front of Borussia Dortmund’s Yellow wall, who is he?
Answers
60s. One of Micky Bullock’s ten goals for Birmingham came against City as he became a squad member at the club despite making his first appearance at a very young age. Bullock signed for Oxford United in 1967, but only stayed there for a year before a move to what I believe was then called Orient where he was to make over two hundred and seventy league appearances over the next eight years. Bullock’s final club was Halifax, who he managed for three years in the early eighties.
70s. Joe Gallagher was released by Liverpool as a youth and signed for Birmingham where he became a fixture in their First Division team in the seventies. Gallagher was given a testimonial game against Aston Villa before signing for Wolves in 1981. Wolves’ financial problems of the early 80s were behind Gallagher’s acrimonious departure for West Ham where he struggled for game time before dropping down the divisions to sign for a Burnley side that almost lost its Football League status towards the end of his time with them – there was also a short loan spell at Halifax during his time at Turf Moor.
80s. Steve Wigley.
90s. George Parris.
00s.Geoff Horsfield.
10s. Jota.- Birmingham paid a reported club record of around £7 million for him in 17/18.
20s. Lee Buchanan spent the 22/23 season with Werder Bremen and his sole career goal so far came at Borussia Dortmund where his effort started a recovery which turned a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 win.
