Swanny's View: Birmingham City 1-1 THFC

[Swanny]

Another 2 points let slip due to the fact we still do not know how to put a game to bed, again not taking our chances in front of goal, silly mistakes at the back, a lack on concentration and poor substitution choices where all a major factor in us dropping yet another 2 points.

On the drive up we were all agreeing that a point from this match would be a good result considering Birmingham’s home form. The opinion soon changed as we dominated this game for long periods and after we scored only one result seemed possible, we pushed on for the second which without doubt would have put the game to bed.

The first half was pretty cagey, with the forwards on both sides pushing forward but to be fair both defences dealt with whatever came their way, with very few goal-scoring opportunities at either end apart from Luka Modric’s shot inches wide of the post which is the only goal threat that comes to mind.

The second half opened at a brisker pace and we were duly rewarded after a fine run from Gareth Bale which ended in him sending over a cross that Peter Crouch went to flick on but in truth he slipped and as he went over the ball brushed his back and it fell to Jermaine Defoe who smashed the ball home to send us 1-0 up. It was no surprise to see Crouchy slip as he appeared to have been auditioning for dancing on ice shortly after the restart as the ball bobbled in front of him when a pass from Wilson Palacios was miscontrolled by Defoe and he scuffed his shot embarrassingly wide with the best chance of the match and falling to the ground like a 3 legged Giraffe.

David Bentley was very effective throughout the game and caused all sorts of problems for the home defence and I was surprised to see him substituted later in the game, a full and lively shift he posed lots of problems with his runs and unlucky not to get on the score sheet .Well done

Gareth Bale put in another fine performance constantly raiding down the wing and sending over a variety of crosses and is really taking advantage of BAE being sidelined; hopefully he will be in the side for sometime to come on his recent form he will be very hard to shift.

Wilson Palacios once again was in control for long periods of the match and was very unlucky to be cautioned for a foul he clearly didn't commit.

We seemed to be heading up the motorway with three very valuable points in the bag until Arry sent on Robbie Keane for JD with about 12 minutes to go and also brought Jermaine Jenas into the game for David Bentley, I know JD had picked up a yellow card for handball but he was looking to add to his tally and was very lively and looked our best threat to increase our lead, PC should have been the one to leave the field his contribution today was not enough to warrant keeping him on for 90 minutes, he looked very poor for most of the match.

After these substitutions Birmingham started to show why they have enjoyed such a good run of form of late, but in fairness the changes Arry made allowed them the space in the centre of the park to operate and push us back, our shape had gone completely and Ridgwell evened the score one minute into time added on. Two very strange substitutions by Arry changed the whole outcome of a match that quite frankly we never looked like losing.

[MAcHinA]

Amen to that.

[ishmal]

think weve taken our foot of the gas and if we dont get our fingers out we can kiss fourth place good bye

[steelktm]

well i be watching it on my DVR on monday (after watching a stream while doing some work) so i will try and look out for the points you posted to either agree or disagree.