Quote from: Rip Van Bentfletch on February 28, 2011, 07:51:57 AMThe best approach is honesty.'You played well and deserved it.'It also shows dignity, because if the roles were reversed, they wouldn't give us any credit at all.They battled well and got the rub of the green but their game plan was all about negativity and spoiling the opposition and hoping to nick something at a srt piece, it's the sort of football Allardyce has made a career out of. It was the only chance they had against a far superior team so I don't blame them for doing it but to me that's not "playing well".
The best approach is honesty.'You played well and deserved it.'It also shows dignity, because if the roles were reversed, they wouldn't give us any credit at all.
I congratulated one this morning and after initial chat about the game.The" City is ours" and "We are the top team in the Midlands " comments arrived to which my reply was " If ManU won nothing and Man City won the Europa this season would you consider the city of Manchester theirs based on past achievements.......silence..
I can't feel angry about it. I know too many noses to not feel a little bit happy for them. I'm also quite happy for McLeish... a decent person and good manager. I wonder how Sullivan, Gold and Brady are feeling...sick to their stomachs I hope. That said, I know as soon as the dust settles that the bollocks will start as they all revert to type.
Quote from: Bren_d on February 28, 2011, 10:58:38 AMI can't feel angry about it. I know too many noses to not feel a little bit happy for them. I'm also quite happy for McLeish... a decent person and good manager. I wonder how Sullivan, Gold and Brady are feeling...sick to their stomachs I hope. That said, I know as soon as the dust settles that the bollocks will start as they all revert to type. Not all of them I hope for your sake.
Back in November a small handful of people including myself observed from afar a change happening at St Andrews. Some mocked and scoffed, more interested in discussing the fantasty ideas of City overtaking United or Spurs overcoming Arsenal. Birmingham over Villa? Not in my lifetime they claimed. Well I'm not here to talk about Villa today. Yes we could argue all day over the decision to spend 18mil on a single player in the hope he doesn't suffer injury and will therefore help pull his side away from the relegation zone, and some would rightly claim it's obscene and extremely short-termist that will only lead to bigger problems further down the line, but today is about Birmingham City.For a long time they have had to deal with spells outside the top flight, and then when in it simply scrapping for survival year on year, sometimes successfully, somestimes not. Yet as mentioned above, it was hard not to notice that THIS Birmingham City was different. Under new ownership (seeing Carson Yeung celebrate yesterday was enough to move even the toughest of us) with a hugely underrated manager and his squad that grows in quality with every passing transfer window, yes THIS Birmingham City is very different.Lest we forget, yesterday's historic victory (the first trophy to arrive in the city for over 15 years now) was done so without the man mountain Scott Dann, picked up for peanuts by Mcleish, or without David Bentley who has been one of the stand out players in the Prem in February, or having Roger Johnson play the last half hour with a "pulled calf", yet they came away as winners. And this was no fluke. Yes the winner was fortunate, but Birmigham more than deserved the victory over 90 minutes.So not only do they have a major trophy to celebrate, they have the prospect of trips to Madrid, Rome, Paris, Lisbon and Minsk to play in Europe next year, and I tell you something, if Roy Hodgson can get to the final, then Alex McLeish and THIS Birmingham City bloody can too. There will be no "concentrating on the league" and fielding weakened teams to deliberately exit the competition early because the manager feels his team isn't good enough to compete on two fronts, Birmingham will give their all as they represent their city and country abroad and yeah they may not win it, but they'll give their fans a hell of an adventure either way. Not to mention the extra revenue and kudos playing in Europe will bring, allowing them to build stronger again. The positives are endless.The giant has finally woken from his slumber, congratulations Birmingham City.
I have been fairly reasonable about it. Couldn't resist one little dig. "it's nice to see Birmingham's second team do well. Aston Villa Reserves are top of their division".