‘It can’t be worse then Millwall’ (Reedy, train up from London)
Oh but it can, Reedy, oh but it can. 22 minutes in and a bloke who’s never scored a goal in his entire career for Birmingham City (‘He’s Caddis you know, hard to believe he’s not scored’) has bagged twice. We are playing a side somewhere near the bottom with us and it’s taken 22 minutes for our entire game plan (there was a GAME PLAN?) to be blown apart. Taxi for Flitcroft!
We started well. For 5/10 minutes Dawson looked keen (‘Wow! I’m getting a start!’) and all was even. Then, a harmless cross from Birmingham’s right could’ve been left – for keeper or goal kick – and M’Voto HAS to head the ball, somewhere to the edge of our own box. We still have time to win the ball back and M’Voto still has time to give the ball away again. They pick up the ball, we stand off and….well, not so much BANG! as a decent hit into the bottom corner from 20 odd yards.
Oh but it can, Reedy, oh but it can. 22 minutes in and a bloke who’s never scored a goal in his entire career for Birmingham City (‘He’s Caddis you know, hard to believe he’s not scored’) has bagged twice. We are playing a side somewhere near the bottom with us and it’s taken 22 minutes for our entire game plan (there was a GAME PLAN?) to be blown apart. Taxi for Flitcroft!
We started well. For 5/10 minutes Dawson looked keen (‘Wow! I’m getting a start!’) and all was even. Then, a harmless cross from Birmingham’s right could’ve been left – for keeper or goal kick – and M’Voto HAS to head the ball, somewhere to the edge of our own box. We still have time to win the ball back and M’Voto still has time to give the ball away again. They pick up the ball, we stand off and….well, not so much BANG! as a decent hit into the bottom corner from 20 odd yards.
This is a GOOD thing, I decide. We will be forced to come out and play, rather than our usual sit back and see what happens – oh it’s gone wrong, we need to go and score a goal kinda scenario. Well, it was EXACTLY that kind of scenario, but at least the opposition had gone ahead early doors, giving us 77 minutes to grab a hold on this game.
The feeling lasted precisely nine minutes. A corner comes in from them, the ball runs loose, heading towards a Reds player…and it’s a penalty. Turns out that pr*ck M’Voto is possibly, possibly, holding/pushing Zigic. The Ponty think it’s a dive…I think the ref had a perfect view. Presuming the ref is right, this is a STUPID STUPID thing for M’Voto to do. Nil-two and my dad disputes my earlier theory about the goodness of Brum’s early goal.
(I have since seen this goal on telly and without a shadow of a doubt it is one of the most blatant dives I’ve ever seen. Oh well.)
Not to worry tho, where there’s two, there’s three. From our OWN corner, it’s 0-3. I know what you’re thinking, one of them there quick breaks from dynamite opposition we see every week from Arsenal, Man U, etc on MOTD. Yeah, it was JUST like that. The ball is cleared towards Dawson wide left…he stares at it coming down, leaves it to…Perkins? Kennedy?...whoever it was (rightfully) stays put (cos it’s clearly Dawson’s ball) and their bloke runs past Dawson, picks up the ball and breaks upfield. They’re 2 on 1 and if he hits the ball crossfield, the centre forward is clean through. Thankfully, the ball isn’t the best, plus Jim O’Brien is on the cover. Good interception. What happens next is a mystery to my memory. From what I can recall, O’Brien tries to spread the ball out wide to right back Wiseman, but instead does what the Brum player intended in the 1st place and gives the ball straight to Zigic, the slowest player in the history of football (well, he is 6’8”) and said player has 20 yards of open space to wander forward and dink a ball over the advancing Butland.
So there it was. Flitcroft, gone with a whimper. With every game this season, he was turning more and more into Keith Hill. Witness the 65% -35% possession today. We never created a chance all match. Or there’s the reliance on (useless) loanees no better than what we have: Ramage, Fox, Tudgay, to name but the ones I remember. (I have to absent Butland from this list, though whether he’ll ever recover from playing behind this back 10 is anyone’s guess.) And there’s the obvious reluctance (refusal?) to play ‘fans favourite’ Bobby Hassell. No matter how bad it gets, don’t play the Hassell – possibly the one man who can organise the defence, DEFINITELY the one man who can get the fans going. But for me, the deathknell was the change of style this season – though peeps tell me even up to this week Flitcroft was in the Chron denying we have given up our pressing game. We no longer have enough players in the side willing to run through the proverbial brick wall, we have too many wallflowers. The Derry Pele? The Derry sh*thouse, more like. At least we saw Flitcroft’s last stand: take Perkins off and stick Mellis on in centre midfield for 45 minutes. Oh, and give Polish Tom a half, 3 months too late.
Flitcroft: It coulda, shoulda been so much better. You saved us, built up our hopes..then shat all over them like my cat did with my carpet yesterday. (To be fair, I hadn’t cleaned his toilet out and it looked like a dangleberry…Flitcroft had no such excuse.) I’d love to say he’ll be sorely missed…and he would’ve been had he left in the summer…but, David…you only have yourself to blame. You had ideas above your station instead of sticking to what worked. We are not Barcelona, we are Barnsley.
*** Crainie. I’m with Norman Rimmington (Happy 90th, Norman! – Now apologise to all your great (great?) grandkids for putting them through such utter drivel. Norman's MOTM, my MOTM. Needed to be, with M'Voto alongside.
** Christ, I dunno. I thought Perkins wasn’t doing too bad. Possibly taken off cos the game was gone, he’d played every week and could do with a break. Let’s bring Mellis on ‘in his best position’!
* Cwyka. Looked like he was trying to score. Imagine.
Despatches:
Butland did nought wrong. Tudgay looked keen (but s***). Pedersen…f*** knows. McCourt? F***ing dreadful. Why is he the deep lying midfielder picking the ball up on the halfway line? It’s JCR all over again. O’Brien? Chasing back on the cover to make THAT mistake will teach him: Do what Paddy does and stand there staring at those behind him. Dawson? He was trying. Very. Kennedy looked like a player out of his depth, while Wiseman looked like a player IN his depth: 24th in division 2. M’Voto was appalling. Have I missed anyone?
Well done Brum. Britain’s 2nd team in Britain’s 2nd city (in population terms only) brought a MASSIVE 970 fans today. In amongst all the gloating in the train carriage back to Sheffield, a Bluenose did have the good grace to admit their fans are pathetic, only coming out in numbers in the (few and far between) good times. That train was ROCKING. I wished I’d made the earlier train. A nice touch from Birmingham City though, joining in with the Super Reds in giving Norman Rimmington a guard of honour onto the pitch before stuffing us out of sight.
The only way we can get out of this is if we sack the manager . Oh.
Danny Wilson anyone? (Only the 11th time* I’ve suggested this since 1999)
A
*approximately.
ps, I've just seen Dagnall score a 25 yarder for Coventry (via a massive deflection, but still...)
The feeling lasted precisely nine minutes. A corner comes in from them, the ball runs loose, heading towards a Reds player…and it’s a penalty. Turns out that pr*ck M’Voto is possibly, possibly, holding/pushing Zigic. The Ponty think it’s a dive…I think the ref had a perfect view. Presuming the ref is right, this is a STUPID STUPID thing for M’Voto to do. Nil-two and my dad disputes my earlier theory about the goodness of Brum’s early goal.
(I have since seen this goal on telly and without a shadow of a doubt it is one of the most blatant dives I’ve ever seen. Oh well.)
Not to worry tho, where there’s two, there’s three. From our OWN corner, it’s 0-3. I know what you’re thinking, one of them there quick breaks from dynamite opposition we see every week from Arsenal, Man U, etc on MOTD. Yeah, it was JUST like that. The ball is cleared towards Dawson wide left…he stares at it coming down, leaves it to…Perkins? Kennedy?...whoever it was (rightfully) stays put (cos it’s clearly Dawson’s ball) and their bloke runs past Dawson, picks up the ball and breaks upfield. They’re 2 on 1 and if he hits the ball crossfield, the centre forward is clean through. Thankfully, the ball isn’t the best, plus Jim O’Brien is on the cover. Good interception. What happens next is a mystery to my memory. From what I can recall, O’Brien tries to spread the ball out wide to right back Wiseman, but instead does what the Brum player intended in the 1st place and gives the ball straight to Zigic, the slowest player in the history of football (well, he is 6’8”) and said player has 20 yards of open space to wander forward and dink a ball over the advancing Butland.
So there it was. Flitcroft, gone with a whimper. With every game this season, he was turning more and more into Keith Hill. Witness the 65% -35% possession today. We never created a chance all match. Or there’s the reliance on (useless) loanees no better than what we have: Ramage, Fox, Tudgay, to name but the ones I remember. (I have to absent Butland from this list, though whether he’ll ever recover from playing behind this back 10 is anyone’s guess.) And there’s the obvious reluctance (refusal?) to play ‘fans favourite’ Bobby Hassell. No matter how bad it gets, don’t play the Hassell – possibly the one man who can organise the defence, DEFINITELY the one man who can get the fans going. But for me, the deathknell was the change of style this season – though peeps tell me even up to this week Flitcroft was in the Chron denying we have given up our pressing game. We no longer have enough players in the side willing to run through the proverbial brick wall, we have too many wallflowers. The Derry Pele? The Derry sh*thouse, more like. At least we saw Flitcroft’s last stand: take Perkins off and stick Mellis on in centre midfield for 45 minutes. Oh, and give Polish Tom a half, 3 months too late.
Flitcroft: It coulda, shoulda been so much better. You saved us, built up our hopes..then shat all over them like my cat did with my carpet yesterday. (To be fair, I hadn’t cleaned his toilet out and it looked like a dangleberry…Flitcroft had no such excuse.) I’d love to say he’ll be sorely missed…and he would’ve been had he left in the summer…but, David…you only have yourself to blame. You had ideas above your station instead of sticking to what worked. We are not Barcelona, we are Barnsley.
*** Crainie. I’m with Norman Rimmington (Happy 90th, Norman! – Now apologise to all your great (great?) grandkids for putting them through such utter drivel. Norman's MOTM, my MOTM. Needed to be, with M'Voto alongside.
** Christ, I dunno. I thought Perkins wasn’t doing too bad. Possibly taken off cos the game was gone, he’d played every week and could do with a break. Let’s bring Mellis on ‘in his best position’!
* Cwyka. Looked like he was trying to score. Imagine.
Despatches:
Butland did nought wrong. Tudgay looked keen (but s***). Pedersen…f*** knows. McCourt? F***ing dreadful. Why is he the deep lying midfielder picking the ball up on the halfway line? It’s JCR all over again. O’Brien? Chasing back on the cover to make THAT mistake will teach him: Do what Paddy does and stand there staring at those behind him. Dawson? He was trying. Very. Kennedy looked like a player out of his depth, while Wiseman looked like a player IN his depth: 24th in division 2. M’Voto was appalling. Have I missed anyone?
Well done Brum. Britain’s 2nd team in Britain’s 2nd city (in population terms only) brought a MASSIVE 970 fans today. In amongst all the gloating in the train carriage back to Sheffield, a Bluenose did have the good grace to admit their fans are pathetic, only coming out in numbers in the (few and far between) good times. That train was ROCKING. I wished I’d made the earlier train. A nice touch from Birmingham City though, joining in with the Super Reds in giving Norman Rimmington a guard of honour onto the pitch before stuffing us out of sight.
The only way we can get out of this is if we sack the manager . Oh.
Danny Wilson anyone? (Only the 11th time* I’ve suggested this since 1999)
A
*approximately.
ps, I've just seen Dagnall score a 25 yarder for Coventry (via a massive deflection, but still...)
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