Category Archives: Birmingham City FC

Darkest day

The solstice, when the sun reaches its southern-most position, is at 4:28 pm. In the Northern Hemisphere, today will be the shortest and therefore the darkest day . From tomorrow, the days will start getting longer. Unfortunately, we don’t know if we have also reached Birmingham City’s darkest day and whether things will start to get a little bit brighter from now on.  Continue reading →

Made in Brum and Graham Potter

Big Dave Thomas produced the first copy of Made in Brum for the first leg of Birmingham City’s playoff semi-final against Barnsley in 2000. Amazingly, that game didn’t stop his production of the fanzine. (You may recall that game wasn’t Blues’ finest hour and the headlines said things like “Brilliant Barnsley crush Blues.”) Continue reading →

Thoughts on consistency, Sheffield and finding your way out of the toilet

I’m trying to look at the positive side of Birmingham City’s inconsistency.  There are two kinds of teams that get consistent results.  The very good teams consistently win games and the very bad teams consistently lose. Blues were consistently losing away and they got a draw at Sheffield United so that means they are no longer consistent losers. Continue reading →

Exhaustion and exhilaration

The game on Saturday reminded me of why I love football.  When I watch a game like that, I forget about everything else for a couple of hours.  That everything else includes more important concerns and it’s good to get a break from thinking about them.  Over twenty years ago, I went through a very difficult period, when I had serious concerns about the health and well-being of the two people I loved most in the world.  The only break I got from worrying about them was watching football; watching Birmingham City play took my complete capacity for worrying and I forgot about everything else. Continue reading →

Thoughts on Sunday and today’s game

It is a pity that Sunday’s game is probably going to be remembered for the clappers that were used as missiles rather than for anything that happened on the pitch.  Clappers, inflatables, big flags and flames are not necessary to create an atmosphere at a Birmingham City versus Aston Villa game; you only need the fans. Continue reading →

Managerial changes

I’m not going to write about the game on Sunday as I’m feeling a bit nervous about it. I’ll be there at St Andrew’s, hoping that my fears won’t be fulfilled but don’t want to spend time worrying beforehand. I won’t be writing about the Millwall game either. I was more upset by the policing of that than by Birmingham’s performance on the pitch but have already written about it on the Blues Trust website (click here to read what I wrote.) Continue reading →

Cardiff game

Birmingham City is not playing as I type this blog, so I am still reasonably rational.  I know that football is a game and if we lose it won’t be the end of the world.  I also know that when I’m at St Andrew’s this evening I’ll be in my game-watching mode, which isn’t at all rational. Continue reading →

A little bit of hope

Last time we played at Pride Park

It hurts when hopes are dashed so I try not to hope for too much from Birmingham City. But I haven’t managed to suppress a little bit of hope after watching Lee Carsley’s press conference and reading reports of what he has said. He seems to be a man who cares more about the club than he cares about his own ego and that’s refreshing.  Continue reading →

Fans not numbers

Values are important in football. To quote from an earlier post that I wrote: “I believe that it’s good for managers, players and fans to be grounded in the world outside football, with family, friends and values that keep them from being crushed by what happens on the pitch.”  Continue reading →