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| St. Andrew's |
SkyBet EFL Championship
at St Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium
Birmingham City (0) 2
Jacques Maghoma 56
Viv Solomon-Otabar 89
Norwich City (0) 2
Onel Hernandez 83, 90+4
Att 22,677, inc. 2,383 from Norwich
THE66POW point & hope photo gallery: click HERE
Birmingham City:
Connal Trueman, Maxime Colin, Michael Morrison (C), Harlee Dean, Kristian Pedersen, Jota (Viv Solomon-Otabor 74), Craig Gardner (Cheick Ndoye 74), Maikel Kieftenbeld, Jacques Maghoma, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Che Adams (Beryly Lubala 90)
Unused subs - Marc Roberts, Wes Harding, Josh Dacres-Cogley, Jake Weaver (GK)
Norwich City:
Tim Krul, Ben Marshall, Grant Hanley (C), Timm Klose, James Husband (Moritz Leitner 63), Alex Tettey, Teemu Pukki, Marco Stiepermann (Dennis Srbeny 74), Tom Trybull (Kenny McLean 63), Onel Hernandez, Jordan Rhodes
Unused subs - Christoph Zimmermann, Louis Thompson, Todd Cantwell, Michael McGovern (GK)
En route to to the second city today, I caught the outbound train from Chesterfield, to take advantage of some special offer fares.
Of course, this being the opening day of the football season, for any league that realises the obvious benefits and common sense factor involved in playing as much football as is humanly possible before the winter extremes kick in, there were a multitude of train delays and cancellations. Further along the same platform, four supporters of the local football club were waiting for their southbound train. I s'pose that's about the average amount of followers you'd expect to turn out for a trek all the way down to Kent, from Derbyshire, to support a crap non league side.
Of course, this being the opening day of the football season, for any league that realises the obvious benefits and common sense factor involved in playing as much football as is humanly possible before the winter extremes kick in, there were a multitude of train delays and cancellations. Further along the same platform, four supporters of the local football club were waiting for their southbound train. I s'pose that's about the average amount of followers you'd expect to turn out for a trek all the way down to Kent, from Derbyshire, to support a crap non league side.
I'd ordered my match pass and had today's ground entry details uploaded onto it well in advance, to speed things up at the turnstiles, food kiosks n' all that, it was inevitable that I still had to queue up for bleedin' ages when I arrived at St. Andrew's, because neither my pass nor any other means of entering the stadium had arrived at my home address in time for me to use them this afternoon, but hey ho! All this new fangled technology stuff always suffers from a least a few teething troubles... and anyway, the pass, along with a paper ticket, of the kind that the wallet sized card is replacing now that they've apparently been eradicated, were both on my doormat awaiting my return home this evening.
And I only had to explain the situation approximately six times to the confused soul serving at the ticket window before he reluctantly provided me with a duplicate stub... it didn't surprise me when the card/ticket scanner a steward was using to check people had a valid means of entering the ground didn't work, nor his replacement one, or that there was a delay in opening the gates, after all is said and done, we're football supporters and thus, by rule of thumb, it's okay to bugger us about.
Patience is a virtue and other people's pain and inconvenience can often be quite amusing, so we didn't really mind the further hold up when a tubby fella got wedged in the infamously narrow Kop turnstiles, meaning he couldn't get any further in, or back out again, without the help of a few big lads heaving him one way and then the other... it must have been quite painful, humiliating and embarrassing for the guy, but it was bloody funny as hell too. Personally I was hoping that they were going to have to summon the fire brigade, but he eventually struggled free.
And no! Before any of you sh*thouses ask, the fatso in question wasn't me!
At first glance, on the approach to the ground, it appeared that B9 was awash with 'Narridge City' fans, such was the prominence of a sea of canary yellow shirts, but on closer inspection, the rather splendid new Birmingham City away shirts (above) were seemingly outselling the royal blue and white home version by at least two to one.
It seems like no time at all since Garry Monk's side dicked Fulham 3-1, on the final day of last season, to finish a 'stop/start/stop again' campaign on a high note and preserve their Championship status for at least another year, on an afternoon when the crowd spontaneously broke into song, joyously filling the air with an optimistic refrain of: "Don't worry, about a thing, 'cos every little thing, is gonna be alright".
But as everyone knows, things are seldom 'gonna be alright', or run smoothly at Blues, who've filled the back pages over this past week, with horror stories about: a transfer embargo, an imminent punishment by the EFL for contravening FFP (financial fair play) rules, a soft embargo (whatever that means), a refusal by the EFL to register Kristian Pedersen, another version of events saying that the Dane can officially sign and play for the club this afternoon, and news was also breaking overnight, that Monk can now sign five other players, on the proviso that they are brought in on loan or signed on free transfers only. AFC Bournemouth's Connor Mahoney and Omar Bogle, who is currently on Cardiff City's books, are widely touted as being on Blues incoming loan signings short list.
It would be fair to say that Bogle has filled out a bit since he was on the books at St. Andrew's as a youth and reserve team player.
And of course, there has been no small amount of unnecessary mudslinging about the two goalkeepers Birmingham are trying to offload, because the management are trying to get their wage bill down, in spite of the considerable efforts both players made towards to keeping them away from the drop zone last season. One of the more fanciful rumours doing the rounds, was that Joe Hart would be returning to St. Andrew's (on a season long loan) to fill the number one shirt.
But it seems more likely that that nice Mr Warnock at Cardiff will be renting an experienced goalie, in Lee Camp, to Birmingham to cover this position for the duration of the 2018-19 term instead In the meantime, young Connal Trueman made his Football League debut today and more than held his own.
Talking of ex Birmingham keepers, Blues are on a 20% sell on clause agreement, if/when Jack Butland leaves Stoke City... and by all accounts there is a strong possibility him moving to a Premier League club now that the Potters have been relegated to the Championship are keen on signing the England keeper. Watch this space, as they say on proper websites and online football resources.
But for the time being, until Thursday at least, it remains to be seen how much of the above is fact or mere speculative fiction.
Money talks (but it can't sing and dance and it can't walk) and it'll no doubt be raising it's uncouth voice to the max in the run up to this coming Thursday's transfer deadline day.
The truth is out there somewhere... but there is an awful lot of flannel, speculation, guesstimating and smoke and mirror stuff to sift through before it'll ever reveal itself. One element of the current shenanigans, that needs to be given a second helpings sized portion of serious consideration, is that while-soever delicate negotiations are taking place, on several fronts, it is usually prudent to play your cards close to your chest and keep sch-tum, so as not to jeopardise any favourable compromise that might still be reachable.
Loose lips sink ships, as the saying goes.
But while-soever there is a void to be filled, there will always be uniformed twerps on social media (and writing self indulgent bullshit blogs with added football content) 'fighting for a good place under the lighting'.
In the build up to this afternoon's game, I predicted, on the Tilton Talk Facebook page, this curtain raiser to the new season, would finish 2-2 and the crowd figure would be 22,222, so although I was half right, today's larger than anticipated (by me least-ways) away support, just cost me the opportunity of winning a t-shirt.
They probably don't have any in my size anyway.
But in my defence, I couldn't possibly have known that there were even anything like the number of coaches in the whole of East Anglia, as turned up in the West Midlands this afternoon, or that so many farmers got a day off on Saturdays.
Daniel Farke, the Canaries manager, said in the aftermath of this lively encounter, that he thought his side were unlucky not to have won. Now far be it from me to cast aspersions on his claims, but they are, to be frank a complete load of rubbish. Any team that goes behind, but equalises inside the last seven minutes of a game, only to concede a last minute goal and pull level again after four minutes of stoppage time, isn't entitled to curse their misfortune.
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| Made in Brum: 428 issues old and still going strong. This special 'pages in the wrong order' edition made for an interesting read on the train home |
And no! Before any of you sh*thouses ask, the fatso in question wasn't me!
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| "Yes love, it fits like a glove. Now take it back and swap it for one that fits like a shirt" |
It seems like no time at all since Garry Monk's side dicked Fulham 3-1, on the final day of last season, to finish a 'stop/start/stop again' campaign on a high note and preserve their Championship status for at least another year, on an afternoon when the crowd spontaneously broke into song, joyously filling the air with an optimistic refrain of: "Don't worry, about a thing, 'cos every little thing, is gonna be alright".
And of course, there has been no small amount of unnecessary mudslinging about the two goalkeepers Birmingham are trying to offload, because the management are trying to get their wage bill down, in spite of the considerable efforts both players made towards to keeping them away from the drop zone last season. One of the more fanciful rumours doing the rounds, was that Joe Hart would be returning to St. Andrew's (on a season long loan) to fill the number one shirt.
Talking of ex Birmingham keepers, Blues are on a 20% sell on clause agreement, if/when Jack Butland leaves Stoke City... and by all accounts there is a strong possibility him moving to a Premier League club now that the Potters have been relegated to the Championship are keen on signing the England keeper. Watch this space, as they say on proper websites and online football resources.
But for the time being, until Thursday at least, it remains to be seen how much of the above is fact or mere speculative fiction.
The truth is out there somewhere... but there is an awful lot of flannel, speculation, guesstimating and smoke and mirror stuff to sift through before it'll ever reveal itself. One element of the current shenanigans, that needs to be given a second helpings sized portion of serious consideration, is that while-soever delicate negotiations are taking place, on several fronts, it is usually prudent to play your cards close to your chest and keep sch-tum, so as not to jeopardise any favourable compromise that might still be reachable.
Loose lips sink ships, as the saying goes.
In the build up to this afternoon's game, I predicted, on the Tilton Talk Facebook page, this curtain raiser to the new season, would finish 2-2 and the crowd figure would be 22,222, so although I was half right, today's larger than anticipated (by me least-ways) away support, just cost me the opportunity of winning a t-shirt.
They probably don't have any in my size anyway.
Daniel Farke, the Canaries manager, said in the aftermath of this lively encounter, that he thought his side were unlucky not to have won. Now far be it from me to cast aspersions on his claims, but they are, to be frank a complete load of rubbish. Any team that goes behind, but equalises inside the last seven minutes of a game, only to concede a last minute goal and pull level again after four minutes of stoppage time, isn't entitled to curse their misfortune.
And even though the OPTA stats show that the visitors spent more time on the ball than Birmingham, they didn't make good on the strength of those percentages and although they probably didn't deserve to lose, given how much graft they had put in, they might do well to cotton on quickly to the fact, that football played from one end of the pitch to the other, is generally more effective than playing backwards and forwards width ways across the pitch, time and time again.
A passing game is, no doubt, aesthetically easy on the eye; a patient and no risk approach is good practice, but
this is a results based industry and points have never been awarded to any team in the whole history of the game, for knocking the ball around for long spells without providing the finishing touches of an end result.
Truth be told, if Norwich didn't have the impressive German striker Onel Hernandez in their line up, you may well ask, other than a first half moment where Trueman did well to turn a header from Jordan Rhodes over the bar, where else they might have scored from otherwise. But, to reiterate, for purposes of clarification: Norwich are a good side, whose tempo and movement off of the ball was very good, but they weren't, in any way, shape or form, unlucky not to leave St. Andrew's with all three points.
Trueman wasn't the only keeper making his debut today, because this was Tim Krul's first Championship start for the visitors. His first real save was just past the twenty minute mark, when Jacques Maghoma testing him with a blistering effort from twelve yards, after some good work and a decent by Maxime Colin out on the right flank had unlocked the Canaries defence.
Maikel Kieftenbeld and Craig Gardner were showing no small amount of good touches and battling determination in their midfield engine room domain.
Maghoma and Lukas Jutkiewicz, both had angled attempts on Krul's goal, but the Dutch international keeper saved the first one, while Jutkiewicz shot wide with the second.
Maikel Kieftenbeld and Craig Gardner were showing no small amount of good touches and battling determination in their midfield engine room domain.
Maghoma and Lukas Jutkiewicz, both had angled attempts on Krul's goal, but the Dutch international keeper saved the first one, while Jutkiewicz shot wide with the second.
The home crowd were incensed when Timm Klose flattened Jutkiewicz as Blues number ten showed him a clean pair of heels and advanced into the D on the edge of the visitors box, but as those around me debated on whether the challenge warranted a red or yellow card, the referee Peter Bankes just mildly chastised the culprit... and subsequently, Gardner didn't connect well with the resulting low free kick as Norwich got lucky for the second time in a little over a minute.
For the record, their manager forgot to mention that particular incident.
HT: Blues 0 v Canaries 0
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| The Norwich subs warming up at half time. Jesus! This medication I'm on is good stuff. |
Jota had a chance to break the deadlock inside the opening exchanges of the second half, but having done the difficult part and making himself enough room for a one v. one shoot out against Krul, he stumbled momentarily and his attempted strike rather tamely ended up in the hands of the grateful visiting keeper.
Jutkiecicz's header back across the face of Krul's goal, from Garner's hanging delivery, present both Jota and Che Adams with a half chance apiece, but a crowd of yellow and green shirts usurped any available space and the ball was cleared away at the expense of a corner.
Norwich only half cleared the flag kick as far as Maghoma, whose initial strike was blocked, but when the rebound fell kindly for him, he launched an Exocetesque screamer, that crashed into the Canaries goal via the underside of the crossbar, that'll probably still be shaking in the morning, thus preventing the pigeons who'll turn up to nick the grass seed from settling there.
Having fallen behind to Maghoma's wordly of a strike, Norwich adjusted their shape and line up and the change in personnel almost paid dividends, when a quick passing move, opened up Blues defence and allowed Kenny McLean a sight of goal, but debutant left sided
defender Kristian Pedersen, bravely got in the way of the goal bound effort and thwarted the visitors substitute.
That left hand side of Blues defence was often a problem last term, but on today's showing, the Monk guy has prioritised bringing in some quality cover in that position, as he endeavours to keep his side away from yet another relegation scrap this season.
The well travelled Ben Marshall, Norwich are his tenth professional club, since he played youth football at Manchester United and Crewe Alexandra, was putting in a lively shift, but his guile didn't match his guts and when presented with a great opportunity to have a pop from the edge of Blues area, his shot ended up nearer the corner flag than either goal post. No wonder clubs keep moving him on.
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| That's what you call man marking. |
Meanwhile, at the other end, Che Adams worked himself a couple of yards and let fly with goal bound effort, that the visitors skipper, Grant Hanley did well to move quickly into the path of to prevent the former Sheffield United and Ilkeston Town youngster doubling Birmingham's lead.
Jordan Rhodes, trying to kick-start his career at Carrow Road on a year long loan deal from Sheffield Wednesday, was a matter of inches away from claiming a debut goal, but the heroics of Trueman, who turned the close range header over the bar, thwarted the former Scottish international and demonstrated why the Blue management team have put so much faith in their young goalkeeper. In fact it was ever so slightly cruel that Trueman got a hand to Hernandez's eighty third minute equaliser, but couldn't quite stop the ball from rolling into his goal. Now that is what I call unlucky Mr Farke!
The goal gave the visitors a lift and moments later Hernandez blazed a shot wide from just inside Trueman's area.
From seemingly watching out a hard won single goal win, Blues had suddenly let their guard slip and were potentially looking at being the victims of daylight robbery on their home turf.
But fighting until the very end is a Birmingham City trait... and in the very last minute of the scheduled ninety, Jutkiewicz rolled a sublime pass into the feet of young Viv Solomon-Otabar, who advanced on Krul through the right channel, before calmly slotting the ball under him to restore Blues lead.
Surely that was the end of that, but Hernandez grabbed a second equaliser four minutes into stoppage as the (apparently) unlucky visitors, performed a late smash and grab raid and salvaged a point at the death.
Harlee Dean, who'd looked a tower of strength for Birmingham at the back today, almost had the final say, when his header flew narrowly past the wrong side of the upright in the ninety sixth minute.
FT: Birmingham City 2 v Norwich City 2
Thankfully, Mr Bankes curiously lengthy spell of stoppage time, wasn't quite long enough to make me miss my train... in fact I had almost four whole minutes to spare as I clambered breathlessly onto platform 9A. And in no time at all we were stranded in the middle of nowhere, sans any kind of announcement whatsoever, to inform us what the Farke the 50 minute hold up was all about.
Hmm, these things are sent to try us, as we journey on... and try us they bloody well do!
