What a truly awful game of football.

Birmingham weren't very good, and we were just simply horrendous.

Save for five minutes in the first half when we had a patch of nice football, we simply huffed and puffed our way around the pitch and resorted to big lumps up the field, which time and time and time again was easily dealt with by the Brum defence. It was almost identical to our second half performance against Derby at home.

The goal, when it came was well worked. It followed a good passing move and culminated in Cotterill breaking into the box and being pulled down. The referee, unbelievably waved play on and Cotterill managed to get to his feet, beat his marker and square for Davies (all in the blink of an eye) who fired low down the middle of the goal for 1-1.

The Birmingham opener was once again, a comedy of errors. Jim McNulty found himself way out left and misjudged the bounce of the ball. It allowed the ever dangerous Burke to sneak in and curl a shot towards goal (which Steele looked to have covered) which was diverted in by Rob Edwards.

After Barnsley staged a mini revival, for five minutes or so, it was Birmingham who, well, kind of took the game by the scruff of the neck - loosely, I might add. Barnsley sat back and allowed the Blues to come forward, and Keith Fahey fired in from 20 yards off the inside of the post. Soft goal.

In amongst, Craig Davies curled against the post from 25 yards and Matty Done had a goal chalked off for offside - dubiously.

The second half was terrible from a Reds point of view. No football - no attacking presence - clueless and devoid of any creativity. The only shining light was the performance of Digby who had a very good game.

It was long ball after long ball after long ball after long ball - and we didn't win a thing. If that was the tactic - then some one wants a slap, because it just wasn't working. Rob Edwards did two things continuously all match. 1) Pass the ball back to Steele, 2) Pump the ball long to no avail. To be able to play direct football, you have to know how to play direct football and it's quite clear to all watching, that we don't.

What gets me, is that we played five minutes of good football - and SCORED! Then we just fall to bits. We've seen it all too often in games this season, where we go through patches of playing nice football, only to fall to pieces.

Not good enough. The effort was there - the talent, the creativity, the tactical know-how, well, it just isn't.

Dagnall is a poor imitation of Andy Gray. He runs about a lot - credit where credit is due - but offers NOTHING going forward. I know it's early days, but he was poor tonight, and if the long ball game was in the plans, Gray would've been a much better option.

McEveley is absolutely woeful. We'd be better off with a monkey at left back. Awful.

Edwards is a defender I like - tonight, he defended well, but his distribution was terrible.

Digby - exception performance tonight. Played really well.

Davies - good performance, lacked the service badly.

It was just so frustrating watching that tonight - knowing full well that we can do a lot, lot better.

 

Seems a bit harsh. On the Monkey.

 

the management seriously need to get hold of davies in training and fire balls at him to control. his first touch is awful. but the lad's definately got something.

 

I thought the first half was quite entertaining.

The second half however, when despite playing with wingers we simply aimlessly hoofed the ball high and forwards and displayed not a jot of footballing sense or skill, was awful.

What happened to Keef's footballing philosophy?

 

Which One?

I went to a decent one, Barnsley v Birmingham. Barnsley lost but the scoreline flattered the visitors. Good side, Birmingham, very good side.

 

Thought McEveley did ok - used the ball better than he has done in a while. But any left back in our league will struggle against Burke. Got no protection from Done and was isolated too many times.

 

Thought the first half was a good game of football, we hit the outside of the post, they the inside. We had what looked like a goal from a great passing movement ruled out- birmingham had a couple of spells in our box where we stood off and made them count with clinical finishing.

second half was a different story. dagnall never looked like even touching the ball or the high balls to him, Korey smith who was great and hustled in the first half disappeared as did most of the team. Davies worked his socks off and i was really moved to see how proud digby was to wear the shirt after the match running up to the fans and his family with a massive grin on his face. that was kind of better than the whole match!

 

Re: Which One?

Do you know something Ian, I went to that game as well. Who knows if Davis shot had been an inch lower, Done had been ruled onside or the Brum player had sliced in his own goal we may have been looking at a decent game and three points.

I do think sometimes it is an age thing in that we are more patient than some of our younger friends.

I also think we should all remember that there is an opposition team out there whose sole aim is to win the game themselves.

 

Burke to me is the stand out winger I've seen this year.

 

Agreed.

But let's not get into the habit of praising other players eh? It's only ours that are rubbish which makes them look good.

 

Chuckling at that, Dave

 

I don't think we can do better

I thought we gave our all, but it just wasn't enough. First half we matched them, second half their class showed through and they deservedly won the game. We weren't passing it around like Barcelona because we no longer have the players that can do that. If you're expecting the type of football we saw in the first half of the season for the remaining games then you're going to be sorely disappointed. Fortunately for us we've got a lot of points on the board and we're not going to play teams as good as Birmingham every week.

 

You mean a bit like when we win its not because the other team were poor, just we were great?

 

Re: Which One?

This thing about the opposition wanting to win too. The b@stards! Who do they think they are, trying to stop us scoring and then having the cheek to score against us.

We could VERY easily have got a point tonight. With the missing Big Three we may well have even got 3.

We'll be OK for the rest of this season. Next season will be "interesting" though, depending on what happens in the summer and how many other clubs see financial sense.

 

I don't think many will.

 

I think you are right. They will show this "ambition" thingy that folk go on about. To me, "ambition", in football terms, means chucking money around, gambling on promotion, ripping off local businesses while paying football creditors in full, collecting money in buckets after going into admin and then starting the entire process again from scratch.

Glad we are where we are, financially.

 

Re: I don't think we can do better

I broadly agree with that, however, I think that KH has already started planning for next year. He had a full pre-season with the squad who were able to play such good football in September and October. Most of the midfield has for one reason or another become unavailable. Many of the players he has brought in to replace them are just not fit. He needs to look at players in competitive matches and this will tell him more than 100 training sessions about their mental attitude and suitability for the framework he has devised. From his pre-match comments, it was clear that he did not expect to win this game, and I conclude that he had decided to look at a number of players. I am sure that he will have found it useful and If he can use that new found knowledge to build a team for next season, then I am sure the sacrifice of the points will have been worthwhile. That is my only consolation, because, as you say, we were soundly beaten tonight.

 

Who let Michael McIntyre register to post on here???

 

Sometimes we are great... other times we are good but the opposition was poor (Donnie and Leeds at home) do you agree ?

 

I didn't think the game was that poor. We lost the first goal to an individual error with the missed header, fought our way back, went behind to a goal where the ball could have gone anywhere ( our bad luck it found the net via the post) and then had one ruled out offside. Another day and a bit more luck could have produced a point or two. Birmingham still have a decent premiership squad that is more than capably managed by Hughton, sometimes there is no shame in losing to the better team. As an aside, I wonder if Davies is practising for when skys crossbar challenge next comes to town??