Birmingham City v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[eastie]

Looks like Collins will have his goal chalked off by the dubious goals committee and it will go down as a ridgewell og - the shot was not on target but went in off liam, once agent ridgewell does his job!

[Legion]

Handful of arrests at Birmingham City/Aston Villa match

[Legion]

[PeterWithe]

Wasn't the best of results or performances but the attendence has cheered me up no end, I'm sure we can all think of scores of noses who told us that as soon as they were in the Prem then they would be getting 40k every single week.

Fucking tin pot outfit, there will be more at the Wigan game. Mugs.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Didn't really play well again, the Downing/Gabby swap shop was a mystery, but at least we hung in and fought, and defending was better. 

Friedel - 7. Fine display, esp. that one-handed save from Derbyshire second half.
Walker - 7. Much better right-back play than we've been used to, a couple of dodgy moments defending tho.
Clark - 6. Mixed results vs Bentley, popped up occasionally the other end but wasteful/wrong ball too often.
Collins - 8. Solid defending and got the goal.
Dunne - 7.  Much better, committed and composed.
NRC - 7. Covered well for the defence, unlucky to be subbed.
Petrov - 3.  Dreadful. No defensive qualities, gave it away too often (on the few times he got on the ball), and gave no example as captain when we were behind.  Has to go.
Downing - 5. Played out of position and it didn't suit him. Quality on the ball and shooting well below earlier-in-the-season standards.
Albrighton - 6. Did OK attacking Murphy and put some quality crosses in, but shooting a bit awry and clumsy in the tackle once again.
Carew - 4. Very poor, the usual lackadaisical display, passing didnt come off, we need to get rid.
Gabby - 6. Did alright running at their defence when played in his proper position upfront.
Subs:
Bannan - 5.  Game largely passed him by, and lightweight - but his energy did seem to help turn things for us.
Delfouneso - 7. Gave us something different upfront, good on the ball, quick, and great run and shot off the bar.

Good to be out the bottom 3 - we have to hope Makoun and maybe two or three others coming in will help us move on up.

Agree with all of that with the possible exception of Dunne, who apart from one fumble when he gave the ball away to Ferguson in the second half, looked back to his best. I thought the Rags were there for the taking but GH lacked the courage to go at them, preferring to neutralise the threat of Bentley by putting Gabby on the wing. Disappointed not to get the 3 points but encouraged with the effort from all and delighted with Agent Ridgewell. He'll soon be challenging Gabby's record for scoring against the Rags.

[Chris Jameson]

Why was Paul Tait on the pitch?

[Nev]

Can't be Tait, he wouldn't be brave enough to be so near to a group of Villa without the close protection of a dozen or so mini Zulu's.

[PeterWithe]

I thought Dunne was our MOM by quite some distance, I also thought Carew, whilst rusty, gave them a lot to think about. It was one of those games when none of our flair players did particularly well but they all dug in and ground out the draw. We showed fight without too much quality and once that quality returns, we will shoot up the table.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Why was Paul Tait on the pitch?

Could do a caption competition for that one, Ridgewell looks far from happy

[Ger Regan]

I thought Dunne was our MOM by quite some distance, I also thought Carew, whilst rusty, gave them a lot to think about.

I'm one of Carew's biggest critics, but I thought he did reasonably well today.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Handful of arrests at Birmingham City/Aston Villa match

Not too bad, Could have been worse

[barrysleftfoot]

   Makoun will make a big difference.Too pedestrian and slow at releasing the ball from the centre of midfield today.Petrov and NRC, looked stale to me.

  Speaking to a Blose fan after the game, he thought it was a fair result, as i probably do, but as he said, your kids, with a couple of good additions, will mean we have a very good team.And i think that.

  Friedel.......what was he doing in the last minute?.......replace in the summer

  KWalker..........bestplayer in 1st half, not too bad in the 2nd either, a great addition, be nice to have him on a permanent, and if that means releasing AYoung then so be it.

  Collins......got the goal, but a mistake every game.Silly foul to give away, no where near as solid as last year.Distribution terrible.Replace.Don't know why Carlos never played today instead of.

   Dunne......OK today, no mistakes, tries to play the ball out at least.Short term , keep him.

   Clark......our weak link today, kept getting caught out of position.Great prospect just worried his lack of pace will means he never realises his full potential.

   NRC......better out of the 2, but not good enough.

   Petrov.......for me very poor, far too slow and too negative.We will be a far better team when he is out of it.

   Downing......£10m, i would be very tempted.Not enough bottle to be a top performer, N'Zogbia for the same money, yes please.

   Albrighton......top, top quality delivery.Worth having in the team just for the 2/3 top crosses he puts in.

   Gabby......thought he was poor today, and for me his movement, or lack of it, demonstrates his lack of knowledge of the game.Needs competition.

   Carew........useless, never held the ball up, failed to link up, gives stupid free kicks away.Fonz come on and looked far better.I really like the Fonz, good feet, good awareness, great shot, looks a really good prospect.

   Bannan......not his best game, but a really good prospect.

[olaftab]

Returned a bit late from the Sty. Dreadful place half empty  on their biggest day. Not read throgh this thread yet however scanned the match thread.
So I salute Dave Cooper, Ozzjim, Juan pablo amongst very few others for keeping the faith when we were, unfairly on the balance of play, 1-0 down.  More of you need to learn  from  that lot.

Should have been out of sight in the first half.
Clark struggled on his positional play  and was a bit shy of Bentley.
NRC was our best player and I fully expected Petrov  and Carew  to be subsituted when  Fonz and Bannan stripped off.
I wish Downing was a bit more aggressive and put himself in the way of harm now and than.
Gabby on LH midfield did not work specially a JC was ineffective.
Albrighton needs to do the good stuff more often. Went missing in the first half.
My first  watch on Walker and very impressed with his pace and aggression when going forward. However at the moment prone to errors in defence  with poor decision making
I thought Clattenburg had a good game  other than not booking Gardner.

[Irish villain]

I think we were the better team and were worth three points. That said, I'll take the draw. Good to see a bid of fight about us for a change and Dunne was good.

The attendance was shocking, God they're tiny!!

UTV

[olaftab]

McLeish thought they were unlucky not to win. More one-eyed than Cyclops.

FFS is he f*cking blind and stupid?