Birmingham City 3 v Hull City 3 - EFL Championship

Saturday 10th November 2018
SkyBet EFL Championship
at St. Andrew's Stadium
Birmingham City (2) 3
Che Adams 21, 45+4, 84
Hull City (0) 3
Frazier Campbell 50, 60
Kamil Grosicki 73
Attendance 21,468 (inc. 654 Hull fans)

Seriously though... what kind of craziness have I just been watching in the Second City this afternoon?
The Championship continues to be brilliantly unpredictable, providing an almost level playing field, where just about any team can get a result against any other... and nothing, and I seriously mean nothing, ever comes as a surprise anymore.
For the second week running, Blues took a deserved lead into the interval, but conceded three goals in the second half again.

A small part of the impressive Armistice commemorations
at St. Andrew's Football ground today. RESPECT DUE.

At Pride Park last weekend, against Derby County, the warning signs were there for all to see and even your rubbish match reporter on this here; long winded, self indulgent bullshit blog with added football content, made the following observation:
"Take nothing away from Derby, they deserved to win on the strength of the way that they came out after the interval, like a gung-ho and possessed fighting unit; but Garry Monk's side didn't quite apply the brakes on the Rams, in the same way that they have been doing to opposition sides during their impressive run of results of late... and it showed.

Hopefully Blues have taken those shortcomings on board and will work out and implement a solution when Hull City visit St. Andrew's next weekend.
The Tigers, for their part, are currently only one place off of the bottom of the table, but have picked up six points out of their last two games, namely: a 0-1 away win at Bolton Wanderers last weekend and an eye-catching 1-0 win over promotion hopefuls West Bromwich Albion at the KCOM Stadium and the threat they pose mustn't be taken lightly."

But having smashed that nail so accurately on it's head, to almost create the illusion that I actually might know what I'm talking about sometimes, I then reverted to type by saying that the Rams were picking up momentum at the moment and would batter the visitors in their next home game; which by way of a coincidence was also played this very day and finished: Derby County 0 v Aston Villa 3, which meant that the team who play at Trinity Road, B6, leapfrogged over Blues in the table on goal difference, on the strength of this afternoon's results, which gives Blues visit to Villa Park the weekend after next, just that little bit more spice and another talking point to debate and argue about in the build up to the Sunday (25th November) 'high noon' kick off.

Elsewhere in the West Midlands, as I as heading home, the result from the Hawthorns came through and West Bromwich Albion had kept Leeds United off of the top of the table, by beating them 4-1 to climb up to fifth place in the table.
Like I said, only a few fleeting moments ago, how brilliantly unpredictable this division truly is.
One thing that nobody could've anticipated today, was the overwhelming generosity that Hull City were going to afford Che Adams, when they presented him with the opening two goals at St. Andrew's on a plate. Sure, the in form striker still had to finish the chances he was presented with, but he would have been hard pushed not to have kept the ball on target in both instances.

654 Hull fans

The first goal arrived in the twenty first minute, when Tommy Elphick, who was already walking the tightrope on a yellow card that he had been shown for an assassination attempt on Lukas Jutkiewicz early in the game, failed to observe his Green Cross Code before rolling a gentle pass back to his keeper, David Marshall, without looking both ways first, to check for an incoming Adams, who anticipated the defenders faux pas excellently, as he motored past him and nicked the ball past Marshall before he'd had the chance to respond, and rolled it into the unguarded net.
Adams celebrated by clutching the corner flag and accidentally snapped it, cue a delay, while a member of the ground staff ran around the perimeter of the pitch with a replacement, while a steward did his best to make the 'flag sub' stand upright.

The home side were missing the input and influence of Jota, who had limped out of the action during the first half, but another Blues goal was soon forthcoming; when in first half stoppage time, as Elphick and Jordy de Wijs were running the clock down, passing the ball to and fro between themselves in an attempt to limit Blues half time lead to just a single goal, while Adams and Jutkiewicz chased down each and every pass, van Wijs rushed knocking the ball to Elphick as Jutkiewicz bore down on him and miss kicked into the path of Adams who tore past Elphick and crashed a shot past Marshall, to double Birmingham's advantage at the interval.

As the Blues players ran into the corner to celebrate, Conor Mahoney brushed past the flag and dislodged it from the new pole. Causing another short hold up as he struggled to fit it back on.

Oi! Stop buggering about you lot... I've got to be back at New Street for a half five train and don't need any delays today.

HT: Blues 2 v Tigers 3

The Tigers manager: Ian Atkins, switched his line up and formation for the start of the second half, making an 'if you can't beat them join them' change, whereby Hull adopted the same 4-4-2approach that has served Garry Monk's Blues so well of late.

And five minutes after the restart the alteration paid dividends when Frazier Campbell pulled a goal back from Kamil Grosicki’s  low sideways pass.

And as the clock touched the hour mark, Lee Camp parried Grosicki's curling free kick and Campbell was on hand to level things up from close range as he pounced on the loose ball.

Viv Solomon-Otabor squeezed his way forward into the Tigers area, but his shot was deflected behind for a corner, from which Jutkiewicz almost restored Blues lead, but his header was turned against the post by Marshall and Hull cleared their lines.

With the score 

Monk stiffened up his sides spine by introducing  Craig Gardner and Wes Harding from the bench.

But, ironically, as Blues were settling into their new strengthened shape, Hull scored again, when Grosicki bulged the top corner of the net with a wellstruck long range free kick.    

And having just put his side in front, the Polish international almost netted again, but cleared the crossbar when he lashed at the ball just eight yards from Camp's goal.

I wouldn't imagine that many Blues fans would have been sad to see the back of Grosicki when he was substituted late in the game.

With just six minutes remaining, Adams struck again and claimed his hat trick, with an emphatic strike, as Hull faffed about and indulged in a spot of ball watching in their own area.

You can't mess about like that, with the twin spearhead of Adams and Jutkiewicz lurking about, waiting for an opportune moment, to salvage a game that Blues had been winning, but almost had snatched from their grasp.

FT: Birmingham City 1 v Hull City 1

Despite the 'limitations' of their sometimes toothless defence, the Tigers were still good value for a draw, especially in the second half, but it was important that Birmingham restored their resilience today, after last weekend's capitulation... and they couldn't be faulted for chasing the game and fighting to the bitter end, as they added yet another notch to the conquest recorder on their headboard, by taking their unbeaten sequence of home games to fourteen.
The Championship is now closed down until the weekend of the 23rd/24th and 25th of the month, because of yet another international break, and when business is resumed, Hull take on Nottingham Forest on their home-turf on the Saturday, while Blues travel two miles to the north of their own city, to take on bitter rivals Aston Villa on Sunday.