When you settle down in your seat and before you have drunk your Bovril, you find one of your players has already gone down injured, you know its not your team’s day. Add to that its your most in-form striker and you don’t need my 62 years of watching the Boys in Blue to believe that your journey to St Andrews may have been a waste of time.
Before we had kicked a ball
So before kick off against Huddersfield Town we have already lost Lyle Taylor to an injury that our doctor says he’s only seen one like it before in 20 years. That goes with Tahith Chong being out 3 months after passing the ball 10 yards in training and Matija Sarkic, our on-loan goalie, dislocating a shoulder rolling the ball out to a team mate.
Just when you think thinks can’t get worse, of course they do. After half an hour of excellent football and dominating most of the game, stand in centre half, who is actually a right back, makes a good tackle and pulls a hamstring. Max Colin is out for the second time this year with a long-term injury.
Blues find themselves with only one defender on the field and put our best midfield player of late, Gary Gardner at centre half. We are now using a stand in for the stand in who was standing in for Teden Mengi. The Man United youngster who had started at Blues so well was standing in for Dean Sanderson, whose loan was ended for no good reason.
Are you still with me? The first corner that Birmingham concede ends up with Gardner putting through his own goal and ten minutes later gives the ball away in our box and its 2-0.
At that point the game was over. Blues huffed and puffed but apart from two woodwork strikes by Hernandez and Bacuna it was all over bar the shouting.
So what’s next you might ask
Without a mid-week game, we have had chance to get some more bodies fit. Only one of them, Marc Roberts is a defender. Chong and the formally unseen Taylor Richards played in the under 23’s on Sunday and both scored exceptional goals in the lads 4-2 win against Middlesbrough.
They will take part at Bristol on Saturday.
The lack of action by Blues saw them drop a place in the table. My esteemed colleagues on the TILTON TALK SHOW keep saying that there is no danger of us going down. As I said to the gentleman on the train leaving Brum on Saturday who was also convinced, we are safe, with 37 points we won’t be.
Time to start getting points and Bristol is a fairly happy hunting ground for us. So, to the players and staff I would say wear a mask, don’t kick the ball too hard or tackle in training. Careful climbing stairs, boiling kettles, ignore crying babies and dog barking.
Return to the old pre-match ritual of a stroll on the pitch followed by a Woodbine and read of the Sporting life. 10 seconds of on the spot running then go out and give it everything you’ve got. #KRO