Birmingham City 1 v Sheffield United 1 - EFL Championship

Wednesday 10th April 2019
SkyBet EFL Championship
at St. Andrew's Stadium
Birmingham City (1) 1
Michael Morrison 42
Sheffield United (1) 1
Enda Stevens 38
Attendance: 22,351 (inc. 3,247 away)

Birmingham City: Camp, Colin, Morrison, Dean, Pedersen; Mahoney (Jota 60), Gary Gardner, Davis (Craig Gardner 83), Maghoma, Jutkiewicz, Adams.

Unused subs - Trueman, Roberts, Vassell, Mrabti, Harding.

Sheffield United: Henderson, Baldock, Stevens, Fleck, Basham, Sharp, Egan, Norwood, McGoldrick, Duffy (Madine 59), Cranie (Dowell 59).

Unused subs - Moore, Hogan, Coutts, Freeman, Stearman.

Blues lost all five of the games they played in March. Results wise, the low point of that win-less streak, to my way of thinking, was the home defeat against Millwall, on a night when it would be overly polite to suggest that they had merely been below par and going through the motions, against the struggling Lions. It was suggested in some quarters, that Birmingham didn't have a plan B to resort to, when the well drilled Londoners had obviously worked on a game-plan, that effectively saw them playing Garry Monk's side at their own game.
But in truth, they didn't even appear to have a plan A that night, let alone a back-up strategy. 

Of course, any outside hopes of Blues scraping a wild card entry into the play-offs, which was probably only ever a (very) long shot anyway, was scuppered when the EFL smacked their wrists with a nine point deduction, for breaching financial fair play regulations, which compound a miserable month, where another fifteen points went begging by virtue of losing five games on the bounce.
But as this perpetually in a state of flux season moves into April, they appear to have turned a corner, while beating Leeds United on Saturday and putting in a great shift to share the points with promotion hopefuls Sheffield United tonight. 

And although the recent upheaval sees Blues perched just six points above the relegation place, their fate is in their own hands in that respect, because four of their remaining five games are against teams who are beneath them in the table.
But hey! It's Birmingham City we're talking about here, so what on earth could possibly go wrong? Eh!?
The Blades are in action against one of those sides, Millwall,this coming weekend, so all things being equal, it would be decent of them to ease Blues worries by winning that game to repay the massive favour their opponents tonight, bestowed upon them at the weekend, by completing the double this season over Leeds United.

On the subject of Leeds... they picked up three points on the road at Preston last night (where Sheffield United also picked up three points at the weekend), and as a consequence, go into this coming weekend one point above the Bramall Lane outfit. United fans will be in a bit of a quandary about the forthcoming game at Elland Road (5.30PM kick off on Saturday), because although they'll be wanting Marcelo Bielsa's side to drop points, they'll be up against play-off outsiders Sheffield Wednesday. I think it's actually illegal as well as immoral, for any self-respecting Blades supporter to want the Owls to win a game of football. Incidentally, Wednesday's form has picked up since a certain Steve Bruce has taken over the reins at Hillsborough, whose managerial career has also seen him in charge at both of tonight's clubs.

All told, although a draw was just about a fair result, all things considered... and might even have been a result that both managers would've been happy to take before the game commenced, but Blues, who'd already been thwarted by Dean Henderson, were unlucky to go behind in the thirty eighth minute, given the balance of play up until then, but Enda Stevens opening strike was a quality finish, as he picked up a pass from Mark Duffy inside Blues area and emphatically spanked the ball past Lee Camp, who caressed the ball with his outstretched fingers, but could do nothing about preventing the goal.

Of course, Duffy had been on Birmingham's books between 2014 and 2016, although he only made four first team appearances during that time... and Stevens turned out seven times for another West Midlands club(whose name escapes me), during a three year stint there.
Just four minutes after going behind, Blues were on level terms, when Henderson clawed Gary Gardner's header from Connor Mahoney's corner away and Michael Morrison reached the loose ball first to score from close range.

Lee Camp spared the blushes of Lukas Jutkiewicz towards the end of the first half, preventing him from scoring an own goal, with a timely interception.
A few murmurs from some nearby seats, suggests that the jury is still out as regards Lee Camp and some people will always have an axe to grind with him. But I'm in the 'Camp camp' on this one, he's served Blues well this season... and the lads in the back corner of the Kop singing "Lee Camp... in the middle of our goal!", were far louder than a few bitter critics.
To reiterate, Camp had just stopped Jutkiewicz from scoring an own goal.

The Blades fans never suggested for one moment that their keeper had been at fault when Morrison scored, and ultimately, it was Henderson who stopped Blues from taking all three points, with an agile save at full stretch to keep out Che Adams twenty five yard pile-driver, after the former United player had been put through on goal with a slide rule pass from Jota, who'd just come on as a substitute... and then made another good stop from Jota himself.

Bloody hell! My medication is working well tonight.

The visitors had infinitely more possession of the ball, but while soever Blues are keeping the game tight and forcing their opponents to spray the ball around out of harms way, away from Camp's goal, that's par for the course. And besides goals win games, not Opta stats.
David McGoldrick went close to snatching a win right at the death, but he directed his header over the bar, when he really ought to have done better.
FT: Birmingham City 1 v Sheffield United 1

As mentioned above, the Blades entertain  at Bramall Lane on Saturday, while Garry Monk's side travel to bottom side Ipswich Town, who drew 2-2 at St. Andrew's earlier in the season, on an afternoon when they were actually two goals ahead at half-time.No doubt , they'll be battling for survival at the weekend too.
I put in the mileage (and time) and spend way too much money in pursuit of watching 'the beautiful game', in fact I'm not due home at around 2AM on Thursday morning and I could've stayed at home and watched it on the telly (but there's no substitute for actually being there). However, Ipswich have priced themselves out of my options for this coming weekend. Having paid over the odds several times this term already (Leeds, QPR and Sheffield Wednesday), the head needs to kick in and overrule the heart at times... and, financially, enough is enough!

It was £15 to watch tonight's game (even less for concessions), which combined with my next visit to St. Andrew's on Good Friday (v. Derby County), will mean shelling out a combined outlay, for both games, of roughly the same cost that Ipswich are charging for a cramped seat up in the corner of an old antiquated stand, offering a restricted view of just one game. Blues could've cashed in, knowing that both Sheffield United and Derby County will take big away followings with them, but they have considered the fans who've stood by them through some fairly turbulent and testing times.
The club doesn't always get everything right (and I'm damn sure that the powers that be are still more than (in)capable of dropping further monumental clangers in due course), but credit where it's due this time around.