Tag Archives: Middlesbrough F C

WSC

When Saturday Comes describes itself as “the half decent football magazine”. It is one that I subscribe to and its arrival injects a little bit of happiness into the day. The March edition also brought a surprise. It included a report of a Birmingham City game that Birmingham won. The game was our 0-1 win at Middlesbrough.

As well as a description of the game, it included some sympathy for George Friend, returning to his old club with an empty ground rather than a ground filled with fans with good memories of him. It also commented on Aitor Karanka, saying “the feeling persists that it was the 0-0 draws that pleased him most.”

Rainbow after the rain

When I set off to go to the game on Friday, I wasn’t at all sure I wanted to go. But, as I was on the bus going to town, I saw a faint rainbow in the sky and that lifted my spirits. I don’t believe that God is a Birmingham City fan and didn’t interpret the rainbow to mean that Blues were going to win. But I remembered that God told Noah that the rainbow was a sign of His promise to all people and thought of other times when a rainbow had encouraged me.

That didn’t stop me worrying during the game. Darren Randolph kept making saves and, until Villalba scored, I was afraid we might not manage to get a ball go past him into the net. I was also worried about Jutkiewicz, who looked tired or injured after some hard tackles. After we went a goal up, I was afraid that Middlesbrough would equalise and sure enough, they did in the 87^th minute. Then I spent a couple of minutes in despair that, despite our dominance in shots and corners, we’d failed to hold onto our lead. Then Odin Bailey scored in the 89^th minutes and I only had to worry for 5 more minutes of time added on until the final whistle came.

It was a fantastic game, with a good performance from our players and from the crowd, with many staying to applaud the team off the pitch. And Blues are 12^th in the table, just in the top half.

Hope for Hull game

At this stage of the season, I think most Birmingham City fans would prefer winning ugly to losing better. The stats in Garry Monk’s first two games looked better but you don’t get points for possession or passion. In the game against Cardiff, Birmingham had 16 shots, with 7 on target, but one of Cardiff’s shots ended up in the goal. Continue reading →

Atmosphere

I wasn’t happy about Birmingham City playing their last home game of the season on a cold Friday evening but it was a good game. Middlesbrough players had everything to play for, trying to hold on to an automatic promotion place, and Blues players matched them in commitment and desire. The 4,833 away fans helped to boost the numbers and make it the largest home crowd of the season; they also contributed to the atmosphere, as did the newly formed Tilton Alliance. Continue reading →

Pride

This evening’s game against Middlesbrough is Birmingham City’s last home game. Since we have no hope of promotion and no fear of relegation, some would say that there’s nothing to play for but I would like to see the players playing for pride and trying to win. Continue reading →

Wednesday

On Wednesday evening, before the Middlesbrough match, I got the chance to do something I’ve wanted to do for the last couple of years. I saw the scarf lady, said hello and gave her my All-we-care-about-is-BCFC scarf. I noticed that the Birmingham Mail had got a picture of her in the crowd and was pleased to see one end of the scarf showing. I don’t know what her story is but, in her own way, she is a Birmingham City legend. Continue reading →

Too soon to panic

It wasn’t the best start to a season but it’s too soon to look at the league table and panic. It’s true that we are only out of the relegation zone on alphabetical order; Birmingham, Blackpool and Leeds all lost by 2 goals and occupy 20^th, 21^st and 22^nd places. But it is only one game and there are 45 more to play. At least Birmingham had enough players to put on the substitutes bench, which is more than can be said of poor old Blackpool. Both the Guardian and Joey Barton have predicted that Birmingham will be the bottom team in the Championship this season. I find this strangely comforting as I don’t have much confidence in their ability to predict. Continue reading →

Long long road

Thoughts on football, books, and life in general