So we parked up near the ground, taking care to ensue no visible signs of our allegiance were on show on the car. We were meeting people for beer and conversation up in the city centre (nowhere welcoming anywhere near the ground) so we headed off with replica strips on show. Immediately we were passed by a man on a bicycle. He was dressed in a bright yellow lycra top, lycra shorts and a racing helmet. “Wankers” he shouted out to us. I am quite used to the type of welcome one gets when visiting the blue third of Birmingham but there was something remarkably incongruous about the sportily dressed cyclist hurling abuse our way. The next cyclist shouted out “beat the scum”. I assumed (and hoped) that he was a Villa supporter giving instructions to us, rather than a Blues supporter sending out instructions to his mates to get us. One reads about inner-city gun culture or knife culture. In Birmingham it seems the main danger is bicycle culture.
After filling up with the requisite amount of alcohol we got a taxi back over to the ground. The team was, as expected, changed from Saturday’s heroics. Chops got a deserved start – but surprisingly alongside Connolly in a little man- little man routine. Collins and Halford came in as the full backs with Wallace moving up to the wing in place of Richardson (not even on the bench!) and Deano replacing Yorke (also not on the bench). Who was on the bench was our latest Corker O’Donovan.
We took our superb seats in one of the best fitted out stands in the country – if not the world – if you believe Birmingham City. You will know that there is now a rule that clubs can not charge away fans more than home fans for “equivalent” seats. To the right of us Birmingham supporters were paying £20. Even if they wanted a seat in the centre on the half way line they would only be paying £27. In fact, except for the end we were in, the most a Birmingham supporter could be paying was £30. They could go in the corporate “club class” section for £35. So guess how much we had to pay? That’s right – £35! A Love Supreme had written to BCFC asking them about this and had been told it was because of the “superior” facilities in the new (1999) stand. Looking around at the bare breeze blocks, the rudimentary toilets and the basic burger bar, one did wonder exactly which but was meant to be superior. Let me be clear here. BCFC have broken no law. They haven’t even broken the letter of the league regulations. But morally they are thieving from football supporters. If the Premier League is not prepared to stop clubs perpetrating fiddles like this they might as well let their stewards pick our pockets on the way in.
You could say mind you that BCFC get what they deserve because, even with the dramatically cheaper tickets in all other areas of the ground, there was not a single full stand for their first game back in the Premiership. And so in a relatively small ground of about 28k, they were not much more than 80% of capacity (and even that needed the boost of a healthy away following from SAFC).
We were kicking away from the away end first half. Last season for 70 minutes or so we had played the most superb fluent football here and it was amazing we only scored once. It was fairly clear early on that we weren’t going to see the same thing tonight. Both teams seemed to snatch at the ball. It can’t have been easy on the eye. We did seem to be the team more likely. Unfortunately Birmingham seemed so unlikely to score that being more likely than them didn’t really raise our chances to a particular high. A couple of shots blazing over the bar was the most we could muster. However, somewhere around the half hour mark their forward tussled some way out with Nuggsy (I think it was him). It was just one of those ones where you could give a free kick either way or just let it go. As luck would have it the ref decided he was going to give it their way. A good ball to our left of the 6 yard box reached the head of a Birmingham player and it came across goal. There was a Birmingham player coming in the far side so McShane probably felt he had to do something. To be honest if it had not touched him I think Gordon would have got it. However, it deflected off McShane and passed a diving Gordon. Without anyone specifically being to blame it was a bloody annoying goal to give away.
The goal seemed to knock whatever game plan we had and we were poorer after the goal for the rest of the first half. The only other incident of note was Connolly going down in the box. It seemed innocuous at the time. Not just to me (my ability to judge things down the other end is notoriously bad) but nobody in the away end really screamed for a penalty. However, having now seen it on telly, it is a stone bonker. Keane apparently was livid – and quite rightly so.
The second half saw Etuhu getting an early yellow card for a tackle that was rash rather than much else. It is awful having a central midfielder on a yellow as it acts as a dampener on their game. Things were made worse by the fact that Whitehead was not having a great game and in fact he was replaced by Miller. We also saw Halford go off and the young lad O’Donovan come on with Edwards sort of dropping back.
While the football of the second half was enormously better than the first it did contain a topper goal. Etuhu headed forward for Chops, who somehow just ghosted a turn to leave any markers dumfounded. After one bounce he sent a left foot shot bellowing into the back of the net to send the massed ranks of SAFC supporters behind the goal into rapture. This also gave rise to rousing renditions of “He’s one of us, Chopra’s one of us” to the tune of “He’s coming home”. I am not sure everyone who had reservations is completely won over by Chops but everyone, except a tiny minority of ultra-anti-mags, now is fully behind helping him succeed at SAFC.
We then went back to being the team most likely to score again but as time ticked over, they suddenly broke from a poor corner of ours. The ball eventually came to one of their players in the inside left position who cut in past the lunging McShane to fire a shot across and past Gordon. Bugger!
You couldn’t really apportion any blame on Gordon for either goal. You certainly couldn’t say “oh, he should have saved that” or “he should have got out for that” or whatever. However, the problem with a £9m price tag is that people are going to expect the extraordinary and in two matches Gordon has looked OK but has yet to look extraordinary. Early days obviously.
We couldn’t believe we could yet again rescue points at the death. But we must learn to have faith in Roy Keane’s Sunderland. Edwards came dribbling through on the right, got to the bye line and sent in a cross that was just marginally too deep for John (on for Connolly). John did well to get a firm head to it but couldn’t get over it enough and it hit the bar. Bugger again!
As time ticked over we lost Edwards to injury (a hamstring) and so were down to 10 men. However, with the 90 minutes just about up we got a free kick in not too dissimilar a place to where they had scored their first but a bit closer in. A shot came over the wall and seemed to be deflected. Their goalie did well to scoop it out but someone (nee idea whee) headed it back across and Stern John was in the same place as before but this time was able to head it easily into the net. While this was going on O’Donovan was having a cuddle with their goaly. Big cry baby Bruce blubbed about this after the match to add greatly to our entertainment.
With the locals streaming out (we hoped not to get on their bikes) those of us in the enhanced facility seats had a good old sing song. We hadn’t enjoyed their last minute equaliser here a few months ago so this one was extra sweet.
4 points from our first two games. Obviously I am not thinking about Europe. That would be daft and ludicrously premature. But I am in the early stages of thinking about when I might be able to think about Europe.
With Keano in charge nothing is impossible.
John aka Herts