Birmingham City 1 v Millwall 1 - EFL Championship

Saturday 30th November 2019

SkyBet EFL Championship

at St. Andrew's Stadium

Birmingham City (0) 1

Jake Clarke-Salter 79

Millwall (0) 1

Shaun Williams 61
Attendance: 19,715 (inc. 1,182 Millwall fans)

Point & hope mobile phone pictures: click HERE

Birmingham City:

Trueman, Pedersen, Roberts (Dean, 26), Colin, Crowley, Jutkiewicz, Clarke-Salter, Villalba (Bela, 55), Bellingham, Gimenez (Montero, 65), Sunjic.

Unused subs - Camp, McEachran, Maghoma, Davis

Millwall: 

Bialkowski, M Wallace, Cooper, Williams, J Wallace, Thompson (O'Brien, 89), Smith (Bradshaw, 84), Romeo, Pearce: Molumby, Skala (Bodvarsson, 84).

Unused subs - Steele, Brown, Mahoney, Mitchell

Today marked a rare event in modern-day football when neither team had a single-player either cautioned or sent off throughout the entire duration of the game.
One might ask, whether the referee had forgotten to bring his cards along?
Though a more cynical observer could suggest, with no small amount of justification at times, that, in order to receive a booking, harshly or otherwise, one has to put in some kind of meaningful, or forceful challenge, so there was hardly likely to have been any need for the referee, Mr Andy Woolmer, to dish out any form of punishment at any given time.
I suppose also, that it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that the match official turned a blind eye to several transgressions, to let the game flow, sans any interruptions, or that he merely missed or at least misread several important incidents... I know which version of events I'm leaning towards subscribing to.

Because there were two decisions that were pivotal to the outcome of this game, that, in my humble opinion, the referee could and should have called differently... and they were Murray Wallace's first-half trip on Jude Bellingham, and Jake Cooper's second-half shirt tugging misdemeanour as Alvaro Gimenez homed in on the visitors goal, which both occurred inside the Millwall penalty area(s).
Of course, there is no guarantee that Blues would have scored from either instance of being awarded a spot-kick, but we'll never know the answer to that conundrum because of Mr Woolmer's laissez-faire approach to game management.
Of course, Pep Clotet was adamant that both instances were stonewall penalty appeals, while the former Blues manager Gary Rowett, who currently occupies the Millwall hot-seat suggested otherwise, though he was magnanimous enough to concede one of his own staff was of the opinion that the pull on Giminez was a foul.

From my own completely impartial and neutral viewpoint, I feel to compelled to add... of course Blues were denied at least one, if not two, definite penalties this afternoon, by yet another cheating fuck-pig of an EFL match official. Paranoid? Me? You bet I am!

But regardless of Blues not getting the rub of the green as regards either decision, one mustn't lose sight of the fact, that the worrying and very real reason that they haven't won a game in their last five outings, is that only lowly Middlesbrough and Wigan have scored fewer goals than the 15th placed Blues in the Championship this term. 

Though an eternal optimist could counter that by pointing out that three consecutive 1-1 draws, also constitutes the embryonic stages of an unbeaten run, the alarm bells have been sounding for a while now, as regards turning possession into goals and adding some kind of tangible end product to Birmingham's new all singing, all dancing, tactical approach this season.

Penalty appeala and debates aside, Millwall were by far the better team in the first half, as Connal Trueman continued to stake his claim as Blues first-choice goalkeeper, with a brace of top drawer saves, to keep out a header from Matt Smith and a well-struck half-volley by Ben Thompson.
Sadly Marc Roberts was stretchered from the pitch during the first half, hopefully, he isn't as badly hurt as was first feared. Club captain: Harlee Dean came on to replace his injured defensive colleague, returning from a three game suspension.
After the break, it was a far more evenly matched affair, but Trueman was called into action again, to deny Matt Smith at full stretch, from a Jed Wallace cross.
In the sixtieth minute, it was Wallace who unlocked Blues rearguard, with a surging run and decisive delivery to Shaun Williams, who opened the scoring with a long-range strike. Cometh the hour n' all that.

Blues were stung into action by Williams' goal and drew level in the seventy-ninth minute, when Jake Clarke-Salter, who has continued to impress of late, during his loan spell from Chelsea, towered above the Lions defence to head home Dan Crowley's cross.
Jude Bellingham went close to claiming all three points for Blues towards the end of the game, but it's fast becoming a tradition for the current Blues side to score just one goal per game.
And besides, on the balance of play, the draw was probably a fairer result than a home win.
But hey! What the bloody hell has fairness got to do with anything!?
FT: Birmingham City 1 v Millwall 1

That nice Mr Rowett conducted himself impeccably today... maybe Garry Monk could take lessons from him as regards managerial etiquette before his Wednesday side visit St. Andrew's later in the season. Assuming that he is still in charge at Hillsborough in February.
Blues are on the road next weekend as they travel to Reading, while Millwall will face Nottingham Forest at home on Friday night, in a live televised encounter.
Enjoy your football everybody :-)