Birmingham City

Sixer’s Sevens: Birmingham City 0 Sunderland 3. We always win 3-0, Lee

by
Jake: 'Sixer does it in seven words, no more, no less - unless he miscounts'
Jake: ‘Sixer does it in seven words, no more, no less – unless he miscounts’

Pete Sixsmith was wondering on his way to Birmingham whether he ought to question his own sanity. Awful ground, long midweek trek, the usual complaints. But we filled our section while the Bluenoses stayed away (as, of course, did Mackems during last season’s league cup run). The first half sounded dreadful enough listening to Benno and Barnes – ‘thanks heaven for the half time whistle’ said Barnes – so we can only guess what is was like to be at St Andrew’s. The second half surprised Sixer, Benno and Barnes by producing a three-goal canter. But great to hear our supporters chanting ‘we always win three nil’ at Lee Clark …

Read more

Birmingham vs SAFC ‘Guess the Score’: Lee Clark, SMB and another Wembley dream

by
Jake: Wembley bound again?
Jake: Wembley bound again?

It seems only five minutes, but is more than five months, since we were all putting a thumping at Arsenal behind us and watching a spirited first half at Wembley in which Fabio Borini scored one cracker, from Adam Johnson’s marvellous long ball, and ought to have had another. Citeh then produced two even better goals and, as we pressed for an equaliser, an entirely undeserved third on the break to kill us off.

Is St Andrew’s the start of another quest for glory? And if so, can it be achieved or at least competed for without the distraction of a desperate battle against relegation.

Read more

Newcastle, Aston Villa and that shrinking feeling

by

We had some lively banter here last week with Villa fans on the essentially unimportant matter of who supports the bigger club. See it here. At least Villans don’t live in a part of the West Midlands with such an alarmingly shrinking population as poor old Newcastle seems to have. But what on earth do they make of their club’s latest attempt to lure a world-class new manager? …

Having failed to secure the services of a manager who very nearly took his team down, Aston Villa are reported to be taking the process one logical step further.

The new Villa target is evidently Alex McLeish who got quite a lot right at Birmingham City – that great run in the 2009-2010 season, and winning the Carling Cup last season – but managed to get one rather important thing very wrong indeed.

Read more

Salut! week: Birmingham woes, sadness for Fraizer (except in Hull)

by

This is the weekly digest of what has been going on at Salut! Sunderland for readers in a hurry. It started as most weeks do these days, scratching heads and pointing fingers after one more defeat to add to our growing collection. But there’s been much, more more …

There has not been much to cheer us up of late. So you may wish to skip all the navel-gazing that went on after the 2-0 defeat at St Andrew’s, when we were simply unable to turn our dominance for much of the game into a goal or two.

Read more

Birmingham Soapbox: better but still not good enough

by

Steve Bruce took a lot more consolation from a 2-0 defeat at St Andrew’s than our own Pete Sixsmith, who – when not noting with grudging admiration the class of Seb Larsson – recognised some improvement but felt it stopped a long way short of what was required …

As recent performances go, this one wasn’t bad – although that really is damning it with faint praise. But it was another defeat, another drop in the table and an entry ticket to the scrap that is taking place to avoid visits to Coventry, Barnsley and Middlesbrough next season.

There are some positives that we can take from this. The passing was sharper and crisper than of late. We did create some chances. The team seemed to be together. On another day, we could have won or at least taken a much needed point.

Read more

One point in 27: Birmingham setback Observed

by


Pity poor Pete Sixsmth. Another early start for a long awayday, another bitter disappointment. Once again, The Observer asked for his verdict. We start with the Birmingham fan …

KYM YPRES-SMITH, SmallHeathAlliance.com

We’ve been worried for weeks, especially after dipping into the bottom three, but this win means we can breathe again – we just need a few more points to be sure. I think 2-0 was a fair reflection of the game. Our first goal was bizarre but just reward for Larsson – he was our man of the match today, Bowyer also played well. We’ve still got a lot of injuries but team spirit got us through today.

Player ratings
Foster 8; Carr 8, Johnson 9, Ridgewell 8, Parnaby 7; Larsson 9 (Fahey n/a), Ferguson 8, Gardner 8, Bowyer 8; Jerome 7 (Derbyshire 90 n/a), Phillips 6 (Hleb 63 7)

Read more

Birmingham City 2 SAFC 0: Mignolet nightmare but where was our punch?

by

This was another result we feared, but it should never have happened.

Better team in the first half, miles better at the start of the second and you can guess the rest: goalkeeping error before halftime puts us one down, then City’s first good move in an hour doubles their lead – Mignolet again arguably at fault – to leave Niall Quinn looking as glum as we feel.

Read more