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| Lee Camp: Game changing cover star. |
SkyBet EFL Championship
at St. Andrew's Stadium
Birmingham City (1) 2
Scott Hogan 42
Kristian Pedersen 74
Nottingham Forest (1) 1
Tiago Silva 18
Attendance: 20,837 inc. 2,746 away fans
THE66POW mobile phone photos: click HERE
Dan Westwell's professional photos: click HERE
Xuandong Ren, the TTA director who is apparently running the show at St. Andrew's, said in the run up to the window, that he had a plan in place as regards transfers and team-building, while implying that he would be assisting Pep Clotet in a quest to strengthen the team.
Hmm, maybe something went awry and got lost in translation then.
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| Jude Bellingham; he's staying... for now.. |
Y'know, pretty much along similar lines and governed by the same rules, that every single other club in the league has to comply with as well.
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| If you really want to make your point. Sticker-bomb those toilet cisterns, everybody reads those things. |
I know which option I believe and I'd wager that the over-riding majority of people who have read his fictitious claims will be thinking along exacyly the same lines.
Off-loading players, on loan, during the window, with a view to making those moves permanent at a later date, saw: Álvaro Giménez, Fran Villalba, David Stockdale and, more surprisingly: David Davis, whose recent input and upturn in form has been instrumental to Blues remaining unbeaten in their last six games, prior to today; all exit St. Andrew's, along with a rack of the younger players.
So effectively the squad has been pruned and trimmed, and though there are those who'll hardly be lamenting the departure of some of the aforementioned players, the Championship is a competitive league and subsequently, players pick up knocks, bookings and suspensions, so it's best practice to hang onto the fringe players, so there is a plan B in place, should the need arise... for example, look how Marc Roberts excelled when he was drafted in as defensive cover during the first half of this season.
Holding onto these two highly sought after players (AKA: prize assets) bodes well, for the short-term at least. Though one shouldn't lose sight of the fact that they will probably be worth more at the conclusion of the current campaign.
I have no doubt whatsoever that TTA will be looking to cash in their chips as regards these two players, to the highest bidder before next season, but for now, they are not going anywhere.
Hogan has been out on loan at Stoke City, but Villa recalled him from the Potteries, before loaning him out again to their cross-city rivals.
And as if to prove that this kind of stuff doesn't just happen in 'Roy of the Rovers', Hogan won over anyone who had any doubts about his move this afternoon, despite his dubious links, by scoring on his debut, where he also fitted in seamlessly alongside Lukas Jutkiewicz. Doubtless, if he does enough to earn a contract at Blues, he'll be playing against his former Villa teammates in the Championship next season.
When these two sides met at the City Ground back in August, the Reds claimed their first Championship win of the season; while it would be fair to say, that Blues had an off day, as Sabri Lamouchi's team missed a whole host of chances, but still took maximum points with a comfortable 3-0 victory.
Forest picked up a 0-1 win at Griffin Park against promotion rivals Brentford on Tuesday night, that saw them move to within just two points of second placed West Bromwich Albion, after the Baggies lost away at Cardiff City. Leeds United returned to the top of the table, beating Millwall 3-2 at Elland Road, after being 0-2 down at half -time against Gary Rowett's Lions.
The league table, that is perpetually in a state of flux, all changed again this afternoon, after Leeds lost at home against Wigan Athletic, while the Baggies beat Luton at the Hawthorns and Forest blew the chance of making up ground as they went down at St. Andrew's today against a never say die Blues team, playing a good old-fashioned four-four-two system and seemingly dispensing with the tippy-tappy passing the ball to death, with little or no end result experiment... for the time-being anyway.
Tip your head back and pinch the bridge of your nose, that'll stem the bleeding.
And FFS enjoy the moment. Your team just won against the third placed side in the Championship and chalked up their seventh game in a row with losing this afternoon.
Social media seems to be exclusively a platform for negativity and moaning at the moment, it's getting very tempting to delete a whole lot of it and start giving that block function some serious use.
Things took a promising turn for Forest, when Tiago Silva gave them the lead in the eighteenth minute, after picking up the ball in his stride, from Joe Lolley, on an overlapping run to the former Blues youth team player's left, before charging forward and cutting inside a challenge from Jake Clarke-Salter and shooting into the roof of Lee Camp's net, a fraction of a second before Pedersen arrived on the scene.
Typically, the timing of the Forest strike (which was Silva's first ever Championship goal) was all wrong, not that there was ever probably a right time for such a thing today. Because eighteen was the exact minute, that the St. Andrew's faithful had put aside to pay tribute to an eighteen-year-old Blues fan Jake Foster, who'd sadly passed away this last week.
Even though the Forest players and supporters were celebrating, the Blues fans rose to their feet, almost as one and applauded for the whole minute in memory of Jake and followed that with a hearty rendition of the club anthem 'Keep Right On'.
Tragically, Jake's brother Robert passed away in 2000, aged just four, of the same debilitating illness that took Jake. In the interim, his family have moved to a house that was converted to cater for Jake's needs. And because their new home is in a different council borough, the Fosters are facing a £6,000 bill (double the usual price) so that both of their sons can be buried together.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the Foster family with their added financial burden at this traumatic time. Please click HERE if you wish to (and can afford to) donate anything towards the costs... and thanks in anticipation.
Football is only a game, but even though the sad events detailed above put things into some kind of perspective, I'll endeavour to cover the remainder of the afternoon's events in the same kind of narrative context, i.e. the usual, long-winded, self indulgent, tongue in cheek, honest and unbiased as is humanly possible manner.
Five minutes before half-time, which is of course: world famous for psychologically being a good time to score, Forest won a penalty. And in all honesty, I thought that at 0-2, there would probably be very little chance of Blues coming back into the game.
Why was the penalty awarded?
Well, Josh McEachran had apparently been punished for handling the ball as he made a goal-line clearance, which he actually didn't While Ryan Yates went to ground moments later after Lee Camp ran into him, which he actually did... which unintentionally or otherwise, is always a risky business..
And as play swept from one end of the pitch to the other, Camp's intervention proved to be a real game-changer, as Jeremie Bela broke away on the right and his cross found Jutkiewicz beyond the back post, whose return header across the face of Simba's goal, dropped towards Hogan who side-footed the ball into the back of the net in front of the Tilton Road End.
From almost being two goals behind, Blues went into the interval on level terms. And if five minutes before half-time is psychologically a good time to score, three minutes is quite awesome.
Lee Camp's critics among the boo-boy element at St. Andrew's would have to stay off of the internet tonight, with their usual hate-speak and poisonous barbs... ditto, those who have taken to aiming abuse towards Blues captain Harlee Dean, who looked to be back to his best this afternoon, putting in a flawless and solid shift.
Dean became a father again this weekend and as such was given the option of compassionate leave, but he showed commitment to the Blues cause, when he could've chosen to dodge the verbal bullets that have been aimed his wait of late... maybe now people will get off of his back and possibly even realise that aiming invective towards opposition players is a better option than unsettling one of their own, just saying.
Both sides had chances in second-half lead, Jutkiewicz headed from Josh McEachran's cross, then Grabban juggled the ball inside the six yard box to make a shot on the turn for himself, that skimmed off of the crossbar.
Gardner was only inches away from bulging the roof of the the net, when he chested the ball down and fizzed a shot over the bar.
Moments later Dean put his body on the line as Grabban's strike crashed off of his chest, as the Blues skipper made a goal-line clearance... ouch, that must've smarted!
Bela, who was full of running and giving Tobias Fifueiredo plenty to do all afternoon, let fly with a speculative shot that Samba did well to field.
Five minutes before half-time, which is of course: world famous for psychologically being a good time to score, Forest won a penalty. And in all honesty, I thought that at 0-2, there would probably be very little chance of Blues coming back into the game.
Well, Josh McEachran had apparently been punished for handling the ball as he made a goal-line clearance, which he actually didn't While Ryan Yates went to ground moments later after Lee Camp ran into him, which he actually did... which unintentionally or otherwise, is always a risky business..
It still remains a mystery as to which of the two incidents the referee Jeremy Simpson saw worthy of meriting a spot-kick, but that's all immaterial now, because Camp got down well to his left and turned Lewis Grabban's knock from twelve yards away.
Grabban has found the net seventeen times so far this season, but even he wilted when he came face to face with the 'Penalty King'.
From almost being two goals behind, Blues went into the interval on level terms. And if five minutes before half-time is psychologically a good time to score, three minutes is quite awesome.
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| Left to right: Celebrating Blues. Dejected Reds. |
Dean became a father again this weekend and as such was given the option of compassionate leave, but he showed commitment to the Blues cause, when he could've chosen to dodge the verbal bullets that have been aimed his wait of late... maybe now people will get off of his back and possibly even realise that aiming invective towards opposition players is a better option than unsettling one of their own, just saying.
"Who impressed you for Forest today?" asked one of the many Reds fans who were on the same train as me home. Ben Watson did, who, not unlike like Dean, excels in the captain's role. He isn't shy about putting putting or leaving his foot in and leads by example... and Sammy Ameobi, who I'd likened to 'Bambi on ice' the last time that I'd seen him in action, showed a lot of skill out wide on the left and he kept Maxime Colin busy all afternoon, which in turn curtailed Blues number five from making his trademark runs forward on the right flank. Ameobi looks clumsy, but having had a close up view of him throughout the first half, I can confirm that he has a lot of skill to get out of tight situations and a good eye to pick out any player making an overlapping run, which more often than not was Yuri Ribeiro.
"What about Joe Lolley?" they asked... and the conversation closed abruptly when I replied: "Gary Gardner had to apologise to Lolley for sitting on him after the game. When he got back to the changing room he'd completely forgotten that Joe was still in his back pocket".
I once watched Forest in action, alongside a guy who was running the rule over them for an opposition side they were playing in a few weeks time. On the subject of Lolley, he actually said: "I'll have to get somebody to tackle Lolley properly early on, to keep him quiet", then went on to say "And if that doesn't work, we'll get someone to hit him even harder the second time".
It would be wrong of me to betray a confidence, but the person I have quoted, is currently employed by another Championship side.
Gardner was only inches away from bulging the roof of the the net, when he chested the ball down and fizzed a shot over the bar.
Moments later Dean put his body on the line as Grabban's strike crashed off of his chest, as the Blues skipper made a goal-line clearance... ouch, that must've smarted!
Bela, who was full of running and giving Tobias Fifueiredo plenty to do all afternoon, let fly with a speculative shot that Samba did well to field.
Jutkiewicz laid the ball off to Bela, who unleashed a shot from twelve yards that Samba had to push around the post at full stretch.
In the seventy-fourth minute, Pedersen scored what proved to be the winning goal, with an improvised scissor kick after he'd landed on his backside in the area. Forest can't say that they didn't have prior warning about how the chance would be created, as Bela's right wing corner was directed into the goalmouth from Jutkiewicz's header, sound familiar?
Hogan left the field to a great ovation as Marc Roberts joined the fray from the bench to bolster Blues defence, in anticipation of a late Forest push to try to salvage something out of this game, but the best chance in the closing stages, fell to another of the home side's substitutes: Jacques Maghoma, who cut in from the left but rolled his shot just wide of the upright. And that was that.
FT: Birmingham City 2 v Nottingham Forest 1
As the players were being filmed as they were leaving the pitch, Kristian Pedersen approached the camera and said: "That was for you Jake", as he dedicated his goal and the win to young Jake Foster.
Blues are back on home-turf on Tuesday when they face Coventry City in the FA Cup Fourth Round replay, before travelling to Ashton Gate on Friday night to face Bristol City, and then Oakwell next Tuesday to take on Barnsley.
Forest now have back to back home games, against: Leeds United on Saturday evening and Charlton Athletic a week on Tuesday.
Enjoy your football!
