Birmingham City 0 v Millwall 0 - EFL Championship

Wednesday 2nd November 2022

EFL Championship

Birmingham City (0) 0

Millwall (0) 0

Attendance: 15,030 (inc. 543 away fans)

Birmingham City: 

John Rudy, Dion Sanderson, Harlee Dean, Auston Trusty, Maxime Colin, Hannibal (George Hall 78), Krystian Bielik, Tahith Chong (Juninho Bacuna 56), Emmanuel Longelo, Troy Deeney (C) (Lukas Jutkiewicz 78), Scott Hogan.

Unused subs: Neil Etheridge, Jordan Graham, Jordan James, Jobe Bellingham.

Millwall: 

George Long, Danny McNamara, Charlie Cresswell, Jake Cooper (C), Murray Wallace, George Saville, Billy Mitchell, George Honeyman (Callum Styles 85), Zian Flemming, Mason Bennett (Tyler Burey 68), Andreas Vogslammer (Tom Bradshaw 85).

Unused subs: Bartosz Bialkowski, George Evans, Scott Malone, Jamie Shackleton.

'Twas a rough old night for watching football... in a torrential deluge that made even paddling up the Coventry Road towards the ground, from the roundabout, a test of physical endurance. 

It must have been a frustrating experience for both teams, endeavouring to play the game, with a ball that had taken on the guise of a beachball on a (very) gusty day at the beach, as strong winds whipped incessantly across the sodden St. Andrew's turf.

Alas, the inclement conditions dictated the sometimes frantic and rushed pace of the game, which didn't suit the home side at all as they tried to slow things down and control the game, against a rugged a battling Millwall side, who if anything adapted to the conditions better, 

But as a cohesive and solid defensive unit, Blues have addressed the frailties in their own half of the pitch, that have been their undoing in recent campaigns and fought gamely to keep a clean sheet and take a point, against their former manager Gary Rowett, who's recent track record when coming up against Birmingham, since he took charge at the South Bermondsey side, stands up to scrutiny. This was the Lions fourth drawn game in a row at St. Andrew's.

John Eustace's Blues have only conceded fifteen goals in eighteen games, which is a vast improvement on previous campaign's and one of the areas that the former QPR assistant manager had targeted to remedy on his arrival at the club in July of this year, on a three year deal. 

Chances were at a premium for both sides, as they slugged it out to the bitter end. In fact it was stoppage time before Blues had even managed a single effort on target, when George Long held on to Lukas Jutkiewicz's header.

The visitors had come closest to  breaking the deadlock, when Tyler Burey broke away from a heavily congested midfield and advanced towards Blues goal, but a composed and commanding John Ruddy, stood his ground and pounced at the optimum moment to smother the ball. 

What an astute signing the experienced Ruddy has proved to be in the much needed rebuilding of Birmingham City. His input to the overall improvement and upswing in results this season can't be under-estimated.

FT: Birmingham City 0 v Millwall 0

Which was perhaps the most predictable outcome of the season so far, right from the outset of tonight's slog of a game.

For the record. thirty-six year old: John Ruddy has actually played for England, when he came on for the second-half in a friendly international against Italy, played in Bern, Switzerland, on August 10th 2012. Roy Hodgson's side won the game 2-1. And Ruddy kept a clean sheet

Italy's goal was scored in the first-half, against Jack Butland, who began his career at Birmingham City. So now you know. You wait until that one comes up on a Question of Sport, you'll be glad that you bothered to read this: long winded, self indulgent, bullshit blog with added football content then.