Momentum
Eight days ago we were celebrating a win away at then second-placed Blackpool which saw us leapfrog them into the automatic promotion places. That win followed on from another brilliant away victory at Sheffield Wednesday, and with two home games in a row to follow spirits were high. Common consensus was that we could beat Watford and Leicester City on our own patch and then travel down to Birmingham to face our former manager as league leaders. That hasn’t happened and the momentum we had built up with three consecutive wins has come to a halt following two bitterly disappointing defeats.
It isn’t necessarily the fact that we lost our last two matches that is worrying, but rather the level of performance. Town never really got going in either match. Against Watford we took the lead and had a few chances to go 2-0 up, but we never really got on top and looked the poorer of the two teams in possession of the ball. Once Watford equalised we crumbled and eventually lost the match 3-2. Against Leicester City things were even worse as we were never in the game at all and never really looked like we were interested. The exceptional work-rate and organisation shown only eight days earlier was badly missing as we rolled over easily against an admittedly very good team.
After this weekend we have another two week break, and the break probably couldn’t come at a better time. Should we lose on Saturday we will be given two weeks to recover, get back on the training ground and try re-discover the early season promise. Should we win we will go into the break in much higher spirits. The main benefit however is that it will give us a chance to get key players out of the treatment room and back into the team in time for the Wolves match. Joel Lynch, Adam Hammill and in particular James Vaughan have been sorely missed and will definitely improve the look of our starting eleven upon their returns.
The momentum we built up might have stalled after two results which have given us something of a reality check, but Saturday provides us with the perfect platform to regain some of that form in a match many of us have been looking forward to for quite a while.
Lee Clark
“I was pleased with my players and the performance. There were some good things out there, a lot of positive things, and we were unfortunate."
Sound familiar? Of course it does. These are the quotes from Lee Clark after Tuesday night’s away defeat to Cardiff City. Just like during his time at Town, Lee’s looking for excuses as to why they lost the match, rather than focussing on the real issues. When things went wrong while he was our manager he never flat-out accepted a defeat and would instead thrown OPTA stats at us and argue with journalists about their lack of footballing experience. He realises that he can’t do the latter at a club as big as Birmingham but certainly still likes to dig for excuses rather than accepting they were simply beaten by a better team.
43 matches unbeaten. A win percentage of 48.88%. He signed Jordan Rhodes. He signed Lee Peltier. He took us to the playoffs two years in a row and looked set to take us there for a third time. All arguments happy clappers will make as to why Lee Clark did well in his time with Town.
Too many draws. Too many times we accepted a point instead of going for three. He signed Anton Robinson. He signed Robbie Simpson. He bottled it in the playoffs two years in a row and definitely didn’t have the balls to take us up that way at the third time of trying. He couldn’t get us out of League One. All arguments the realists will make as to why Lee Clark ultimately failed in his time with Town.
This all begs the question - what kind of reaction will Lee Clark get from Town fans on Saturday? I for one will not be cheering him, I can’t stand the sour faced Geordie loser.
The season so far
As already mentioned, the wheels have fallen off at Town to a certain extent. The fine performances that gave us so much hope have been replaced by inept, uninterested performances in the previous two matches. Before that blip there is no doubting we’d looked very good – new signings such as Joel Lynch, Oliver Norwood and James Vaughan in particular impressing. Perhaps it’s no surprise then that when our best defender and best striker were unavailable we lost both our matches. We’ve taken 13 points from 15 when Vaughan has played and 0 from 9 when he hasn’t.
Birmingham have had a much better week than us. Granted things couldn’t get much worse after their humiliating 5-0 home defeat to Barnsley on live TV, but a win away at Brighton followed by a respectable 2-1 defeat away at Cardiff shows massive improvement. The blues failed to win any of their first three league matches, immediately putting Clark under pressure. Three wins, one defeat and two stalemates since represents a good up-turn in form but the harrowing home defeat to Barnsley will still hurt the St Andrews faithful.
We currently sit 8th in the Championship table while Birmingham are 18th. However, only three points separate the two teams so a home win on Saturday would see them level in the league table after nine matches. Pre-season predictions suggested that Town should be happy to just stay in the league while Birmingham should be disappointed with anything less than another playoff campaign. Neither team have had the start expected by bookmakers in August but there are 38 matches of the season still to be played.
The teams
For Town Joel Lynch will return following a three game suspension earned when he picked up a red card at Hillsborough. Simon Grayson said James Vaughan was "touch and go" before the Leicester match so he must be pushing for a return this weekend. Finally, Jermaine Beckford will return to the squad after being unable to play against his parent club last time out. Adam Hammill remains the only key absentee but he should be available for selection again after the international break. The team I would select is:
.............Smithies
Hunt... Clarke... Lynch... Dixon
Clayton Southern Norwood Ward
......Beckford... Vaughan
As I understand it Birmingham have no major injury worries ahead of the weekends game so I would expect them to start with the same team that played against Cardiff:
..............Butland
Packwood Caldwell Davies Robinson
Burke... Spector... Fahey... Elliott
........Lovenkrands Lita
Prediction
Obviously a massive improvement is needed from Town and with Vaughan [hopefully] and Lynch returning to the team we should get that. I don't see us losing this one but I reckon Clark will have Birmingham really fired up as he still for some reason believes he shouldn't have been sacked. I'm going to say 2-2, with at least one player getting sent off during the match.
Birmingham City [a] match thread
posted on 9/10/12
I was released...end of the world stuff..
joined up and did other stuff...I played forces footie and combined services etc..
my lad is qualified to same level as lee clark and others, absolute piece of p-ss, in his words..
The best managers can get their people to consistently do better than other teams, whatever the goal is..
As in "real life" some can and some cant, no matter what you throw at it or however qualified they appear.
Lee Clark might do better with no money and a much lower expectation, it might be his best chance of moving up..
Experience is great and it helps greatly but not if you havent learnt anything about yourself or you goal as you have gone along.. I think Lee might be one of them..
Ive met lots of people who have been on every course going and have been promoted into the stratosphere on the back of those "qualifications" but you wouldnt follow them to the outside loo in the dark, never mind anywhere else..
posted on 9/10/12
38 please tell me u didnt play for l66ds or sadford???
posted on 9/10/12
Cmon 38 pray tell, Name the sides you played for ?? Mirf promises not to reveal who you really are, Dont you Mirf ? You promise not to lose your finely honed detective skills, Revelations please 38.
posted on 9/10/12
As Brycey says, "cmon 38 pray tell" - I promise I won't blow your cover, even I do twig who you are - I sussed "Cryer" on here, but never divulged his name and never would.
You weren't discarded by Town, were you?
posted on 9/10/12
its always possible mirf...
i found my niche doing something else..
when you look back you realise they were right...hard to take at the time...was never going to be quick enough, good job i could run a long way...
probably worked better for me to get an early start doing something else..
the "record shows i took the blows" ya da ya da.....
Would be great now to get a 3 year deal in the premier league, dont spend owt, invest a load and then do nothing for the rest of your life....
They say they "need" the money because its a short career???
They "need" the money because a lot are silly lads or ars-holes who spend it all on cr-p and then get dumped...
£1.50 a week "travelling money(bus fare)"... the "high life"???? scary when you look back...
posted on 9/10/12
I got invited to train with Oldhams youth side when I was 13. Turned up and just got bullied all day long. Despite my pleas to play at my usual position of centre back I was stuck up front and got kicked from pillar to post by some 16 year old skinhead for the longest two hours of my life.
I fought back tears in the car on the way home as the whole experience destroyed me. It was about two days later when my dad had a frank discussion with me, informing me that the training session would be as easy as it would ever get. I knew then that I wasn't cut out for a career in the game.
Nowadays kids are picked up by academies at 7, and pretty much get pampered the whole time. Had I been born 10 years later I might have stood a chance but in many ways I'm grateful to have been chewed up and spat out at such an early age. Whilst the money isn't to be sniffed at, I saw so many young lads my age become big shots despite never making the grade, something which has plagued their personalities ever since.
posted on 9/10/12
tis true, for every kid in a football squad somewhere there are a hundred who got very close and then got dumped..
then you remember that david batty played for england and you can see why quite a number are very bitter about it
posted on 11/10/12
I played football at the highest level in fact...
Scapegoat Hill...
posted on 11/10/12
yes jacko..
the old pitches..
win the toss and kick with "the tide"...
play up the "slope" in the first half and see how many you stop being behind by half time,, pitches where the top half never got played on whilst the bottom half looked like "the somme"...
Adopting the "zulu" defence forming a square on your own 18 yard line and kicking it as far towards the halfway line as you could to get a breather before it came back in..
The pitches that sloped away dramatically to one side, the dream of all little nippy wingers, the ball always went to them..
The "dog sh- t" patrol before the game with small shovels and plassy bags..
Trying like hell to attach "holey" goal nets onto posts with no visible form of anything to actually attach them to..
Changing in cars, then trying to wipe all the cr-p off after the game or not being allowed back in the motor..
Keeper and centre forward throwing up before the game after a heavy night, then delaying the start for a cig break..
"Deadly Rivals" to look forward to "playing" and the knowing looks at each other from the minute they arrived at the ground..
Good days...
posted on 11/10/12
haha...Being the unlucky one nominated to 'take the nets down', meaning by the time you got to the hot water tap...it was freezing...and you're legs are covered in mud. So you decide not to bother, then an hour later in the pub all the bits of dried and cracked mud start dropping out through the legs of your jeans....
happy days indeed...(not)..