Birmingham City 2 v Blackburn Rovers 1 - FA Cup R3

Saturday 4th January 2020

The Emirates FA Cup Third Round

at St. Andrew's Stadium

Birmingham City (1) 2

Dan Crowley 4

Jeremie Bela 90

Blackburn Rovers (0) 1

Adam Armstrong 61 pen

Attendance: 7,330 (inc. 843 away fans)

Birmingham City:

Camp, Colin, Dean, Clarke-Salter (Harding 69), Pederson, Gardner (Sunjic 57), Davis, Montero (Bela HT), Crowley, Maghoma, Gimenez.

Unused subs - Medina, McEachran, Bailey, Trueman (GK)

Blackburn Rovers: 

Leutwiler, Adarabioyo, Lenihan, Bennett (Williams 37), Bell, Johnson, Brereton (Chapman 56), Downing (Buckley 78), Rothwell, Armstrong, Gallagher.

Unused subs - Samuel, Davenport, Travis, Fisher (GK)

My third visit to St. Andrew's in the space of just six days, confirmed my 'glutton for punishment' masochistic tendencies are showing no signs of diminishing as I enter yet another decade of travelling in pursuit of the beautiful game... and some of it's uglier versions too.
Birmingham have played Blackburn twice in the Championship this season already, and in doing so have picked up four points along the way, with a 1-0 win at St. Andrew's in October and a 1-1 draw at Ewood Park on Boxing Day.

The latter result saw Blues gain the only point that they've managed to pick up during their last six league games, since a 2-3 win at Reading at the beginning of December.

For the record, Pep Clotet has held his hands up and apologised to supporters for his team's unsatisfactory display against Wigan Athletic on Wednesday afternoon. The Latics moved off of the bottom of the table as a consequence that 2-3 win at St. Andrew's, while Luton Town subsequently slipped into last place. By way of a coincidence, Birmingham travel to Kenilworth Road, with another sold out away following in tandem to take on the Hatters next weekend.

Only the Kop and the visiting fans section of the Gil Merrick Stand were today... and it wasn't even a Coventry City 'home' fixture, because even taking the £10 a ticket offer into account, interest in this competition isn't on a lot of people's priority lists anymore. 

Some people even claimed that they were boycotting this game as a protest against the club's hierarchy. But that's bullshit! If you don't want to watch FA Cup games, then that's your choice and nobody is twisting your arm to turn out, but don't go giving me any of your conscientious objector, moral high-ground rhetoric, because you're not convincing anybody. And don't starting bellowing like an infant denied sweeties if you can't get hold of a ticket if Blues get drawn against a Premier League club in any of the subsequent rounds,.. though results elsewhere today have guaranteed that won't be Aston Villa.

The times they are definitely a' changing. Today's visitors won the FA Cup a total of six times (most recently, way back in 1928), and  today they arrived in Birmingham with an away following of 843, which is actually 164 more than travelled down from Lancashire for the recent league game, that helped to nudge the crowd figure up to 7,330.
This afternoon's FA Cup Third Round tie had a kick-off time of 12.31PM. The early start was for the benefit of a overseas TV broadcast, while the extra minute was applied to all cup game kick-off times this weekend, so supporters could take time out to think about mental health issues and how they might effect them and other people.

Alas, nostalgia ain't what it used to be and Third Round day, that used to assume Biblical proportions back when I first fell in love with the beautiful game, is nowhere near as relevant these days... and is merely seen by many as an annoying distraction and hindrance in the fixtures calendar.

In this era of squad rotation, Pep Clotet made seven changes from Wednesday's starting line up against Wigan, but that is seemingly par for the course these days anyway.

Jake Clarke-Salter’s return to the heart of defence, following a month on the sidelines through injury, was a welcome sight, until the Chelsea loanee limped out of the action around the seventieth minute. Tony Mowbray, for his part, made three changes to a Rovers side that had lost 3-2 at Nottingham Forest in midweek.
In all honesty, today's morale boosting win for Blues, was a fortuitous one... but though it's been a while in coming, Birmingham are surely overdue their share of some good luck this season by now. 

Lee Camp had an early touch, when he fielded a speculative long-range effort from Joe Rothwell.

I like Camp, but for all the times that I find his eccentricities amusing, there have also been numerous occasions when his off the cuff, random madness has scared me half to death

However, it was a flying start for Blues today, as Danny Crowley picked a pass from from Kristian Pedersen, just inside the Blackburn half and motored forward from the left hand side of midfield, before cutting inside and planting a low, right foot shot, just inside the right hand upright, beyond the reach of Jason Leutwiler.

The hosts almost doubled their lead when Gardner shot wide from the edge of the area, after a neat exchange of passes with Crowley.

Rovers should've been on level terms when Amari'i Bell's cross picked out Adam Armstrong, whose attempt on goal was scooped away by Camp, towards Sam Gallacher, presnting the former Blues attacker with an easy tap-in, but he fired straight at Armstrong, who could only nudge the ball feebly past the right hand upright.
After the game, the visitors manager singled out Gallacher for his profligacy and wastefulness... and not without good reason. Although Che Adams was Birmingham's top goalscorer in all competitions during their lacklustre 2017-18 campaign, Gallagher was their highest scorer in the Championship, with a total of six strikes to his name in thirty three appearances, during a season-long loan from Southampton.

Jeffersen Montero made his first start for Blues since August and tested Leutwiler twice during the first half with left-wing crosses, one of which Alvaro Giminez almost profited from.

Birmingham are the thirty year old  Ecuadorian winger's fourth club that he's been out on loan to, since signing for Swansea City in 2014. The service he provides for whoever Blues have in attack, makes him a worthwhile addition to the side, but he is still labouring for pace following his recent enforced break from the action and he was subsequently withdrawn at half-time and replaced by Jeremie Bela. 

Although the first half had been an evenly contested affair, which, set against a backdrop of twenty one thousand plus empty seats, was played out in a novelty atmosphere akin to what you'd expect from a pre-season friendly, or Under 23's game, after the break, a few of the surreal moments of near silence, were interspersed with a good few 'oohs and aahs' as Stewart Downing, Rothwell, Armstrong and (in particular) Gallacher (three times) failed to find the target with a string of good chances.
The away supporters who sang: "You're f*cking shit!" towards Blues fans, possibly need to learn a bit of humility, given that a supposedly inferior team have taken four league points from them and ended their interest in this season's FA Cup. But by the same token, you can only hope that the Blues fans who responded with: "You must've come in a taxi!" were being ironic, given the absence of at least ten thousand regular home supporters today.

Blues defensive frailities were certainly rearing their ugly and unwanted head yet again... and Blackburn only have themselves to blame for taking full advantage of several lackadaisical moments, where they were gifted goal-scoring opportunities by the score.

Ivan Sunjic was introduced from the bench to bolster Blues rearguard in the fifty-eighth minute, by slotting in just in front of the Blues Defence. Sunjic hadn't been his usual influential self against Wigan and had looked out of sorts with some woeful distribution, but you can forgive him one stinker of a game in lieu of his input so far this season.

Alas, he was only on the pitch less than two minutes today, because in trying to recover possession from Gallacher, who's pounced on his under-hit back-pass to Camp, Sunjic was judged to have pulled the Rovers forward down, resulting in him conceding a penalty and getting shown a straight red-card for his efforts. Even though it did look like a 'six and two thirds' grapple between the pair of them from my vantage point.

A few half-hearted arguments over whether the Croatian's initial contact had been outside the area or not, had no bearing on the referee's decision, and alas it was Sunjic's carelessness and lack of concentration in creating the situation in the first place, that led to Blackburn's equaliser, which if truth is to be be told, had been on the cards since the end of the first half. 

Armstrong, who'd scored from the spot against Blues on Boxing Day, slammed the resulting kick into the roof of Camp's net.

FFS our Ivan! It was only Sam Gallacher... Sam effing Gallacher! He would probably have spurned his big chance anyway.

Derrick Williams punted a left-wing free kick into Blues penalty area, which never looked even slightly likely to reach any of his team-mates, but Blues resident master of theatrical drama, inexplicably opted not to gather the ball. but pushed it towards his own goal, where he only just manage to make a recovering save at the very last moment. But, despite him having indulged us with a few eyebrow raising moments that could colloquially be termed as: "Doing a Camp", Blues number one had kept a clean sheet this afternoon, other than when Armstrong had emphatically tucked away his penalty.

Everything pointed towards this game heading for a replay. An outcome that I'm quite sure there was absolutely zero enthusiasm whatsoever for, from anybody present. 

But, as the game entered it's final minute, Jacques Maghoma rolled the ball out wide to Bela on his right who cut into the Rovers area and headed straight for there goal, before rifling a shot/cross towards the right hand post, that ended up in the back of the net as he crashed off of Leutwiler.

It was too late for Rovers to find a second goal now and they were left to rue all of the chances that had gone begging.

FT: Birmingham City 2 v Blackburn Rovers 1

Was it ever in any doubt!? Says I with my tongue planted very firmly in my cheek.

The fall-out from Sunjic's moment of madness, means that he will be suspended for one game... next weekend's Championship fixture at Luton Town, on the same afternoon that Blackburn entertain Preston North End in a Lancashire derby at Ewood Park.

And, of course, Blues won't be heading to the Riverside Stadium on Saturday January 25th for the scheduled Championship game anymore, because that falls on the same weekend that the FA Cup Fourth Round ties are being played... the draw will be broadcast live on BBC1 at 7.35PM on Monday night. I'll be glued to the edge of my seat in excited anticipation.