Birmingham City
Blues Trust
Blues 4 All
Hi Bluenoses, everywhere.
I am indebted to a Mr. Ivor Roth who Emailed me regarding the live report of the QPR match. His comment was, “too many gaps without talking, no enthusiasm. Boring.” I had watched it back before I uploaded and had to agree with him. I had already predicted the outcome of the game in my previous written blog and was so depressed with the sheer ineptitude of the performance in terms of looking like scoring that I was literally almost speechless. I pointed out that I was not giving the kind of analysis that Clinton Morrison gives on Skye and would leave that to him. What you saw on screen was an extremely frustrated very, very long-suffering fan. I was not one of these who wanted the manager out or particularly critical of any of the players. Following two avoidable defeats, the failure to get close to winning against QPR sent us falling into that 10th spot as I had predicted the week before. Why did it happen?
Firstly, the lack of Lee Buchanan who as yet been involved in a losing side. His sending off at Watford at 0-0 saw the first and important goal come from the side which he had vacated. So too the winner against Preston. Now he has managed to injure himself and will be absent until at least after the international break. So, we are getting to the cause of my depression. The squad that Blues have assembled should be in contention with the teams at the top of the division. However, Hall, Roberts, Awiu, have yet to kick a ball for us. Hall and Roberts have both had “setbacks” which means they have been injured in training. That applies to Buchanan and Laird and Gary Gardner. Anderson is now injured for 6 weeks and suddenly our squad looks rather threadbare.
That is why we are 10th and not 2nd.
There are several players who have come into the club with longstanding injury records, and we are fortunate that some are still on the field. If their weakness kicks in, then we will be in trouble. So that is where my frustration is coming from. More than one manager in the last few years has lost his job because they oversaw a squad riddled with injuries. I firmly believe John Eustace will succeed but doesn’t need these training ground injuries handicapping him.
So, to Saturday and Norwich City which hasn’t been much of a happy hunting ground for us in recent years. While our squad of about 12 or 13 fit players have been training like mad to right the wrongs of last week Norwich have had a 6-2 walloping by Plymouth and League cup defeat by Fulham. Despite this Norwich have one more point than us and the same goal difference. This adds to my frustration that we are not in the top six of the league. The frustration that with Norwich being ripe for picking we are depleted and average less than a goal a game.
Have I depressed you enough? Sorry but we all know that there is every chance that Blues will find a way to return from Carrow road with a positive result. No doubt that the management team has worked out a way to nullify the Canaries and the players will successfully carry out that plan.
God bless you all.
Anyway, look out for ‘Watto’s Weekly Live’ on You Tube, Twitter and Facebook.
THE TILTON TALK SHOW
Back Monday 2nd September
A difficult match but Norwich are not the side that won two Promotions a few years ago.They look brittle in defense so l think if we play a good controlled game we can come back with something.