Saturday 12th March 2022
EFL Championship
Birmingham City (0) 0
Hull City (0) 0
Attendance: 17,231
Birmingham City
Neil Etheridge, Jordan Graham, Marc Roberts, Nico Gordon, Kristian Pedersen, Gary Gardner (C), Ivan Sunjic (Ryan Woods 56), Juninho Bacuna (Taylor Richards 69), Onel Hernandez, Lyle Taylor, Tahith Chong.
Unused Subs: Connal Trueman, Teden Mengi, Jordan James, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Scott Hogan.
Hull City:
Matt Ingram, Alfie Jones, Sean McLoughlin, Jacob Greaves, Ryan Longman (Regan Slater 84), Richard Smallwood (C), Greg Docherty (Tom Huddlestone 84), Brandon Fleming, George Honeyman, Keane Lewis-Potter, Tom Eaves (Marcus Forss 66).
Unused Subs: Harvey Cartwright, Callum Elder, Allahyar Sayyadmanesh, Di’Shon Bernard.
In the aftermath of this ugly runt of a stalemate, Blues boss Lee Bowyer expressed the view that it had been a scrappy game. Remove the letter s from the front of his noun of choice, then I would have to agree a little more wholeheartedly with his description of this turgid encounter.
Given that a late Harry Wilson goal at Oakwell earlier in the day had earned Fulham a draw against struggling Barnsley thus denying the Tykes with the chance to make up some ground on the teams directly above them in the table, this point apiece meant that Hull finished the day thirteen points above the relegation berths and Birmingham sixteen. Though that might not sound such a drastic position for either team to be in, it is worth noting that if the EFL hadn't deducted points from two of the bottom four clubs in the Championship this season, then both of these sides might've been more inclined to have given the job in hand a bit more of a go.
The St. Andrew's pitch looked to be in poor fettle and there was a fairly stiff breeze blowing across it which both had a detrimental affect on the game (or maybe I'm just scraping the bottom of the barrel looking for some kind of balance, AKA excuses), but on the whole this dull fare was a grim reminder of the fact that although football is, in part, an offshoot of the entertainment business, in the main it is actually a results based industry.
In the build up to the game, the Tigers manager Shota Arveladze named names when he pinpointed which players his team would be paying special attention to, in an effort to thwart the hosts sides creativity (mission accomplished) and after the final whistle said: "I'm happy. Both sides knew one mistake could decide the game in the second half".
He was happy! Which speaks volumes in itself.
The visitors could've been ahead in the opening minute when Keane Lewis-Potter almost gave Hull the lead ,but he was thwarted by Neil Etheridge, who pulled off a fine save at full stretch. And just before half-time Lewis-Potter was in the thick of things again, when he cleared Lyle Taylor's header off of the Tigers goal-line with their keeper Matt Ingram well beaten, after Gary Gardner had returned Jordan Graham's corner kick back across the face of the visitors goal.
Clear cut second half chances were at a premium too, though there is a distinct possibly that I might have actually nodded off for a while and missed something.
In conclusion, the longer the game went on, the more resolute both teams became in their determination not to concede a goal and hang on to a point.
The goalless score-line keeps them both (just) out of battle to beat the drop, but didn't create much of a spectacle for the paying public.
Plenty of people nipped off early to catch the England v Ireland Rugby Union international on the telly, but although I had zero interest in doing so myself, it had already become apparent that the old adage about not leaving a game early in case you miss something pivotal, was not even slightly likely to be apt this afternoon.
FT: Blues 0 v Tigers 0
I've seen worse games, but not much worse.
Several individuals emerged from the carnage with credit, but football is a team game and if everybody isn't showing that same will to win, in both camps, then inevitably the outcome almost always becomes a mere formality.
This dire and barely passable excuse for a credible encounter, marked Lee Bowyer's fiftieth game in charge of Blues.
Under the current regime that represents an almost astonishing period of longevity.
Opinion among the disgruntled ranks of the Bluenose faithful as to whether he will (or even should) still be around long enough to celebrate his full century in the hot seat is becoming increasingly polarised and divided as the online forums become ever more disparate (and desperate) and grim as regards the subject of Bowyer's tenure.
Of course, the paying public are entitled to their opinions, most (but certainly not all) of which are genuinely delivered straight from the heart, but it's blatantly obvious that the real problem's at Birmingham City emanate from the powers that be, above management level.
I wouldn't suggest for one moment, that Lee Bowyer always gets his tactics, team selections and substitutions right all of the time, or even most of it... though the reality is that very few managers ever really do. Especially in the rough and tumble state of flux that is no man's land in the Championship.
Nor am I of the opinion that all of the Birmingham players always put a full shift in, or blind to the fact that several of them could quite justifiably have been accused of merely going through the motions in a less than fully committed manner of late.
That said, one can accept that others do make genuine mistakes from time to time... because hey! Doesn't everybody love a trier?
But a lot the often knee jerk online reaction relating to some of the above seems to be borne out of personal animosity and scapegoating. I myself have got no agenda to such an end, but it is fairly obvious that far too many people do have... and they effing well bore me to tears.
A point and a clean sheet, built on a foundation of a safe footing, occupying a league placing somewhere in between the annual relegation scrap of recent seasons and mid-table mediocrity.
Woo feckin' hoo! You've never had it so good.
'Twas a good day out all told, in good company... spoiled only by the ninety plus minutes of an atrocious and thoroughly unconvincing approximation a football match.
