What the . . . ? What next?
I don't think I've ever seen or heard so many Blues fans as crushed, shocked and angry - all rolled into one - than in the aftermath of the Villa Park humiliation.
Everyone you meet or talk to feels the same, and the emails fired off to the Birmingham Mail and comments posted on Internet message boards show clearly the strength of feeling.
The reasons for Blues tonking have been dissected at length elsewhere and, when the summer is here, that's the time for steps to be taken to ensure it never happens again.
And let's be honest here, those who have followed Blues regularly away from home will tell you that in some ways a pasting like Sunday's was inevitable.
Blues are a completely different team when they are not at St Andrew's. Meek, unassertive, shown up for pace and quality and easy to score against; on bad away days that's them in a nutshell. The Villa result could easily have been the Wigan result.
For now, though, the focus has to be on the remaining three games and showing professional pride and the strength of character to get the points needed.
Liverpool at home, Fulham away, Blackburn home; no matter who the opponents are, it's all about Blues and how they impose themselves and show a force of will and personality.
Sure, a splodge of luck here and there is probably going to be needed.
And you just hope, for everyone's sake, the referees do not become the talking point.
He won't say it publicly, but Alex McLeish is convinced that the smaller teams get a raw deal in England from referees and are influenced by the big sides home crowds.
It has been an eye-opener for him after spending his career up to now in Scotland.
He has spoken to referees' chief Keith Hackett about the inconsistencies in Mark Clattenburg's handling of the Villa game and stressed a team like Blues, even though they are struggling at the wrong end of the table, should get as fair a deal as the glamour sides.
The pressure on players and referees to get it right intensifies at this stage. There is so much at stake.
As I mentioned, you just hope that a relegation issue doesn't turn on a bad or controversial decision.
Sunderland's Roy Keane has railed already this season at the way his side have been treated with referees, and had an apology from Hackett.
Had the Black Cats been much deeper in the mire, would he have let ride Mike Dean's award of a penalty for Newcastle United against Danny Higginbotham, who turned his back as he went in on Michael Owen?
One incident that has escaped the radar was Alan Wiley's decision not to penalise Bolton Wanderers' Gavin McCann for handball at Middlesbrough.
I know people who know Wiley and they say he is a decent bloke as well as a good referee. But how could he not give that?
The game was 0-0 at the time and the repercussions turned out to be huge.
And you know what? Wiley is a Blues fan.
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Colin Tattum - Mail man Colin Tattum’s view of what’s going on at Birmingham City FC.
Tatts, do you think that McLeish is either struggling with a team which Bruce has left him, or is not tacticlly aware of what is needed for the Premiership??
Granted he has brought in his own players who have done well (except O'Connor - 6ft 3 and can't win a header?) but is it down to the players he has been left with.
Also, should we stay up, will he get the financial backing in the transfer market we so deperately need?
O'Connor signed by Bruce not McLeish
Pedant!
Do you think that poor refereeing was to blame for the defeat then Tatts?
Ironic really Tatts as isn't Clattenburg from Bolton?
we are all shell shocked, embarrassed even..
Mcleish is now no doubt fuming inside but having to appear swan like from the surface. No doubt he would be a lot more frank about the glaringly obvious holes in the squad but is trying to do what he can with what he's got, as he has no choice until the end of the season. Trouble is it is not looking enough. Midfield ; defence especially are not up to it. The inability to defend set pieces is becoming farcical...we've got three games left and you would have to be a brave man to bet against conceding again from inswinging crosses, corners you name it.I fear what the likes of Peter Crouch may do to us next.The players must know the drill but just can't seem to get there first.
At the end of the day i think this is down to the calibre of players that Mcleish has inherited from Bruce. We could so do with Cahill now..lets hope he does not produce heroics for Bolton and send us down: how ironic would that be..having been crippled by Villa on Sunday to be finally sunk by an ex Villan...but lets try to remain positive
Ha Ha Ha, loving your sadness.
I hope that the blues players get to read these comments, we all know that it was a bad result against villa, but the players need to get that out of their mind now, reading in the mail that the players are all shocked and the manager saying that they need to focus on the games ahead is fine, and good to know that they care, but what really matters is the thousands of blues fans (me included) that so passionately want blues to stay up and maintain our premier league status, mcleish dont deserve to be managing a team in the championship (no disrespect to the teams in that division) he deserves to be managing birmingham city in the premier league, he is a good manager and we "are" a good team, so let me say this with the greatest of respect to the players, board and staff, you cant know how we are feeling right now because none of are die hard blues fans like us the ones who make birmingham city fc the club it is today, so every blues fan all over the world, at 2.59pm on saturday just before kick off, just think to yourself "i believe" and we will do it, just believe.
Thanks for pointing that out Keith Wrighton - i'm glad your input has sparked further debate!!
I'll be there on Saturday trying to believe, but after all these years of believing, i'm finally starting to get sick of tired of it all, and i honestly thought i never would, but sometimes medocrity and other priorities in life take precedence. if this was a job or a woman, they'd have been given the boot long ago!!
If we go down, i won't renew, i don't think i could take it again, and i've been a season ticket holder there since 1991 when i was 10 so i've put a healthy amount of dosh into the club over the years!!
Just making the point re McLeish signings as like you I think they have done ok for him. Unfortunately many of the players he inherited are not up to scratch in the Premiership. I still believe we will stay up and he can then rebuild (or start the process as it wont happen in one go). If we go down I cant see us back up for a while to be honest as the clear out wont happen' Taz ;-p see you soon
The comment re O'Connor was actually in support of your views as like you I feel that McLeish's signings have been good for the team. Unfortunately the players he has at his disposal are not all of the same quality. I still believe we will stay up and then McLeish can start the rebuilding of the team although it will take a couple of years. I dread to think what may happen if we go down as I can't see the rebuild happening and all the better and promising players will be sold off
Taz ;-p see you soon you owe me a pint
You would think that astute businessmen like Sullivan and Gold would have learned from the last relegation that if you don't invest you fail, but no it's the same old method, do it on the cheap, make do and mend and then blame the rest of the world when you go down. I am afraid that until we have new owners it will go on in the same old depressing way. It's no surprise that we were crushed by the other lot, after all one Villa player alone cost almost as much as half of our team. You get what you pay for in this game.
Just for info - Mark Clattenburg is a Geordie.
Now Eck is questioning the refereeing. If that's what it's come down to we are in dire trouble.
He started the wrong side, leaving Forsell on the bench was an absolute disgrace. The constant belief in Ridgewell is totally misplaced, look at the Villa ratings on him, he's a liability every game. Bringing Jerome in for the biggest match of the season after he has been out of the team for months defies logic.
We are a ten bob outfit trying to compete agains't multi million dollar player's, the board needs to push the boat out and give the manager the opportunity to purchase class not cast off's. I've supported the Blues since the 1960's and it just doesn't change, even my old man was saying the same thing in the 1950's, younger fans are saying it now about the club in the 2000's. It's demoralising to see Portsmouth, Blackburn, Middlesborough, Reading, Wigan with more ambition than the Blues. The fan base has dramatically dwindled because they are tired of being offered the same old dross and drivel and being charged outrageous ticket prices to boot.
I don't see any chance of pulling the great escape off now, Eck has been telling his player's today to believe, it's well beyond that now, nothing less than three wins is going to cut it and this team simply is not good enough to turn over Liverpool or Blackburn and they will struggle at Fulham. They have squandered the season away with pethetic away day form.
McLeish is not blaming the refereeing at all, this blog is just bringing into the public domain for Blues fans things that might not otherwise be known, and are of interest. The movement and speed of Zarate was preferred to Forssell against Villa's back four of all centre-halves, and Forssell had an ankle injury and only trained for two days beforehand. Likewise with Larsson and de Ridder injured, Jerome played wide right where he was excellent against Everton the week before, it was too risky to start Kapo after 8 weeks out injured, and there's no other options in central midfield. The players are fully aware of the fans feelings at what happened on Sunday I can assure you. As for McLeish being tactically aware for the Premiership he is. In the summer he wants to bring in four or five players of real quality and has people identified already. Whether he gets them and/or is allowed to spend what he needs is a question that will only be answered once the season has finished.
It's an absolute joke for some supporters to try to palm this defeat onto Bruce. AN UTTER JOKE!! Bruce had run his course and a change was probably about due but still some people seem obsessed by the bloke. McLeish has had more than enough time to assess his squad and make the necessary additions in January. That is the manager's responsibility. If McLeish has not had sufficient transfer funds available, then the same could be said of Bruce's summer budget. I'm still behind McLeish but it's very very cheap shot for people to keep playing this pathetic 'Bruce's players' card all the time when the team are left wanting! I'm sure McLeish wouldn't use such a pathetic excuse himself. If he has been given sufficinet funds, and a window in which to spend them, then the current manager is ultimately accountable for the team he fields... and the results that they then generate! Let's hope that McLeish does in the Summer what he should of done in January... spend some money in the transfer market!
Clattenburg should have gone by the letter of the law and booked Muamba for his wreckless tackle on Barry (which the Villa skipper brushed off without complaint) and then again for a similar offence in the second half. McFadden who was booked once, got away with being petulant throughout the match and at one stage kicking the ball away right infront of the referee. It would have been interetsing to see how Blues coped with 9 men!! They got lucky if you ask me.
Even Villa fans were questioning why Forsell didn't start. He was well over his ankle injury, he had been practicing hard for the game and every blog leading up to the game stated how eager and ready he was for the Villa challenge. He more than proved his fitness when he came off the bench and scored. The only positive piece of action by a poor Blues team all game.
I can see the blogs two weeks from now, IF ONLY we had done this, WOULD OF, SHOULD OF, COULD OF, maybe things would have been different. But it's been that way all season, there has never been a consistent attacking or midfield option, whether it be through injury or more often than not, chopping and changing just for the sake of it, which obviously proves their is not enough money being spent to strengthen the squad at crucial times like the January Transfer window.
Forssel has clearly stated his opinions of Bruce and that it was not a case of being unfit when he did not play, simply out of favour and I will say that this is also the case with Eck when he went with O'Connor and Jerome, barely a goal or inspired piece of play between them.
Before McFadden's knee surgery it appeared that the favoured forward partnership of Forsell and McFadden was paying off, obviously that was broken up through no fault of Eck, but as soon as McFadden was back, why didn't he run with the McFadden/Forsell attack again ? Eck had already stated that he saw Zarate as a kind of super sub, an impact player off the bench, just like in the Everton game, so why change your philosophy now ? It doesn't make any sense to me and other Brummie fan's to leave what is potentially your best and most experienced forward on the bench. I'd have even thrown Kappo in if he had passed a fitness test before the game, it's too late now, not to be taking chances or risks in an effort to staive off relegation. If it's not clear yet, it will be in three weeks time, either we stay up or we are back in the Championship and then we won't even have the possibility of choosing a Kappo, Forsell, McFadden, Larsson and other's because they will be OFF!
Being a fan for many years nothing spoils the heart and passion for the game just enjoy being part of this great game we have
Just remember we should consider the manager and try to support him the best way we can chant his name from the seats as we do for the players if you dont do that we could all look up into the sky and pray
Come on Blues you can and will do it just forget the local derby @ AV kick the life out of LFC
as you have done many times
.come on you blues.northfield expects
yes come on blues lets beat them notherners, flat caps and donkey jackets,i predict 2 nunk to blues,McSheff and Lar on the sheet,ive had a little bet with Mr Hill to show my loyalty he says im mad but hay whats thrupence nowerdays.
What Next!! well we got our answer yesterday Championship footy next year and personally I would suggest that you don't hold your breath of getting back in to the top flight next season.