Blues on a wire
Hands up, then, who has taken more than a passing interest in the Championship the last couple of weeks?
Have you bothered to find out what time the Championship goals are screened on ITV on Sunday mornings?
Or even looked at who is coming up from League One?
After so much cautious optimism that Blues 'will just about be OK', when they've played Chelsea off the park, upset Arsenal, beaten Spurs and Manchester City, the mood has changed.
Most people are steeling themselves for another slog in the division from whence Blues have just come.
Alex McLeish and his players are making the right noises, that there is still a chance. And there is. But what else are they supposed to say?
Should the worst happen and Blues be relegated, then that's the time for inquests. And it could be a very stormy summer all told as disillusionment with the board continues to grow.
But now's not the time for the fingers of blame to be pointed.
Blues have to win at home to Blackburn Rovers on Sunday (although they could get away with a draw) and hope results elsewhere fall their way.
Trouble is Reading are at Derby County, now officially the worst Premier League team ever. And Fulham could get the matador treatment from FA Cup finalists Portsmouth.
At least Blues are at St Andrew's. They are they a Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde team, home and away.
Another sub-standard performance did for them at Craven Cottage. Lapses in concentration and mistakes cost the goals, but Blues hardly posed many problems of their own. Kasey Keller wouldn't surely have expected to be so redundant.
Fulham had players who could take the ball, pass it with purpose and inter-change swiftly, constructing flowing moves.
Blues just can't play in such fashion and were also not quick enough to, or hard enough in, the general skirmishes, until they had to step it up at 1-0, nor careful in possession.
Accepting that some are not 100 per cent fit, and Liam Ridgewell's loss to injury at half-time disrupted Blues (yes, he was playing well), it still wasn't up to scratch.
Another 'must win' big game and Blues couldn't deliver, they found it all too much. You can see their lack of self-belief on the road. Robert Hopkins's words in last Thursday's Birmingham Mail carried a ring of truth sadly.
On Sunday, a lot of decisions made since promotion could come home to roost. Or Blues could dig deeper, build on strong St Andrew's showings and upset the odds. Let's see just where the chips fall.
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Colin Tattum
Mail man Colin Tattum’s view of what’s going on at Birmingham City FC.
It is just very disappointing to see the same players who at least battled for Steve Bruce have put in such shocking away performances when it mattered most. The manager must take responsibility for this. If the players have lost the motivation to battle Alex McLeish is going in to be in for a very rude awakening in The Championship. Less talk off the pitch and focus on the match please lads.The club is stale from the top and I wish someone would back me the way the board (probably can't afford to sack anyone on such a new contract within the clubs financial dealings) back Alex McLeish for two away points in eleven games.
Claire, can't agree love. The players didn't battle any more for Bruce than McLeish. We lost pathetically at Mboro, Blackburn, Everton. They just haven't got big enough hearts and Bruce brought them here. Under McLeish we won at Spurs, held Arsenal almost won at Man U. If Bruce was still here we would have already been relegated. As everyone seems to at last realise the problem with our club IS the board. Doesn't matter who the manager may be.
Davey, I agree to a certain extent. The lack of finances for transfers are the root of the problem BUT I'm starting to have concerns with certain aspects of Mr McLeish's reign. I don't think we'd have many more points if Bruce was still in place but I am pretty sure we WOULD have ground something out of the 6-pointer games. We've performed miserably in those must-win matches and gifted valuable points to our key rivals. It wouldn't have been pretty under Bruce but it would have been points in the bank. Bruce always had a knack of grinding out something in those sorts of games. Bruce was not always very entertaining but effective non the less. Anyhow, we're going for a different approach now and lets hope McLeish is able to successfully find a balance between entertainment value and league points next season...
Davey, I agree to a certain extent. The lack of finances for transfers are the root of the problem BUT I'm starting to have concerns with certain aspects of Mr McLeish's reign. I don't think we'd have many more points if Bruce was still in place but I am pretty sure we WOULD have ground something out of the 6-pointer games. We've performed miserably in those must-win matches and gifted valuable points to our key rivals. It wouldn't have been pretty under Bruce but it would have been points in the bank. Bruce always had a knack of grinding out something in those sorts of games. Bruce was not always very entertaining but effective non the less. Anyhow, we're going for a different approach now and lets hope McLeish is able to successfully find a balance between entertainment value and league points next season...
Davey, I agree to a certain extent. The lack of finances for transfers are the root of the problem BUT I'm starting to have concerns with certain aspects of Mr McLeish's reign. I don't think we'd have many more points if Bruce was still in place but I am pretty sure we WOULD have ground something out of the 6-pointer games. We've performed miserably in those must-win matches and gifted valuable points to our key rivals. It wouldn't have been pretty under Bruce but it would have been points in the bank. Bruce always had a knack of grinding out something in those sorts of games. Bruce was not always very entertaining but effective non the less. Anyhow, we're going for a different approach now and lets hope McLeish is able to successfully find a balance between entertainment value and league points next season...
I think this Bruce thing is over played. We beat Wigan and Bolton at home under him but that was at a stage of the season when they were not real real pressure games. We lost the last three times to Villa under him we choked at Middborough and v Sunderland, Everton and he left McLeish a team that was not good enough. We were on a losing streak when Bruce left as well and the fans would have called for his head if he had stayed. He kept Wigan up because they have better quality and more physical players
What odds that if Reading and Fulham draw (or even lose), Blues will still contrive to get themselves relegated by letting in scrappy goals and missing chances?
Hope I'm wrong...