When Huddersfield led 1-0 at Deepdale last night, it was all making for a very tense atmosphere at St. Andrews for tonight’s game between Birmingham City and Cardiff City. As it is, despite Preston overwhelming Huddersfield by 4-1 in the end, you would expect nerves to be frayed among Bluenose fans as they play their game in hand over many of their rivals while still in the bottom three.
Last night’s results made mathematically certain of something that had been clear for weeks, if not months – City would be staying up this season. Therefore, we are now officially the sort of team that those still involved at the top or bottom of the table love to face during the run in to the end of any season – a side with nothing to play for.
If tonight’s match was being played at Cardiff City Stadium, the three points would be as good as Birmingham’s already, but, although we can sometimes be just as hopeless away as we are at home (e.g. Hull, Plymouth, Norwich and Swansea) we don’t tend to be the soft touch that out of form Sunderland and Hull sides found us to be on their recent visits to our ground.
Birmingham’s current plight is completely at odds with what was coming out of the club in the early weeks of the season when new owners were letting the world know about their “no fear football”. However, they then decided to sack John Eustace when he had them in the top six because he wasn’t a big enough name for the ambitious new owners and so Wayne Rooney oversaw a slide down the table which was temporarily arrested when his woefully out of form side won 1-0 at Cardiff City Stadium in December.
Rooney had to go though and he was eventually sacked. His replacement Tony Mowbray looked a sound appointment, but health problems mean he has had to temporarily step aside with his long time assistant Mark Venus taking over. However, results took another dive and now they’ve made a stop gap appointment in Gary Rowett – another manager that over ambitious owners of Birmingham decided wasn’t showbiz enough for them back in the season when Neil Warnock took us to promotion.
Rowett teams might not be exciting, but they have generally tended to be effective at this level and, although I’d quite fancy our chances if we were to score first, I can see Birmingham edging a tight game, probably by 1-0.
This time tomorrow we’ll know if I was right or not and we’ll also know the answers to these seven Birmingham related questions.
60s. From memory, this defender cum midfielder never had what his name suggested he should, but he was a regular in Birmingham sides throughout this decade. When it was time for him to move on, the destination would surely have caused a shock to blues fans, but, in the event, it turned out that all but a half dozen of his Football League appearances were for Birmingham – there was a season playing for non league snakes from Sheepy Road, but his playing days were over by the mid seventies. However, he has spent much of the time since then working in the game, notably as a scout, but who is he?
70s. This forward crossed two borders to sign for his first club and was soon making an impact for them, finishing their top scorer in one of his three seasons with the club. However, it was his performance in a charity match which persuaded London giants to pay what was a fair sized fee for him at the time. For a while, he did quite well in his new surroundings as he became what is now known as a squad player during his first season, but his second one did not go well – he did get a winner’s medal, but it was for winning the Football Combination (the competition for the reserve teams of clubs in the south of the country) as he made little impact in the senior team. Birmingham then paid a bigger fee for him, but he was bought as a replacement for a man who had once scored a hat trick for England and had scored goals at a healthy rate while at St Andrews. Our man found the player he was replacing’s boots too big to fill and was now in the declining years of a career that never lived up to its early promise -there was a loan move to a Midlands side that played in white at the time and he wore the same colour shirts at his next two clubs, one in London and the other very close to one of those two borders he crossed, before finishing with a county set not far from where his first club played – who am I describing?
80s. I suppose it could be said that this midfielder’s surname encapsulates mid table mediocrity!
90s. Cradle the last vestige of striker. (5,8)
00s, Sounds like this bird family wanted to work on the farm!
10s. Observe Welsh singer.
20s. Which current Birmingham player has been the subject of a couple of transfers totalling around £20 million and informed his last club a few months ago that “he would not be available for selection and wishes to leave with immediate effect.”?
