Plymouth hoe, hoe, hoe

Remember St Andrew's in the 'dark' ages? By that I mean the Ken Wheldon St Andrew's, on night games about as illuminated as a winter's afternoon in Finland.

Well, Home Park, Plymouth was pretty grim last night. It was a dank evening and the lights on the old Grandstand stand (circa 1940s) were dire.

Blues players complained that it contributed to a catalogue of miskicks and poor clearances. After Plymouth's first corner, Maik Taylor told referee Kevin Wright that he couldn't see the flight of the ball whatsoever.

Blues managed to repel eight corners in a fraught first-half; night vision goggles were sought from kit man Denis Butler at the interval apparently.

Alex McLeish was relatively sympathetic to their plight, but he certainly wasn't at the time when Plymouth pinned Blues back deep into their own territory.

He wore away the technical area stomping and stamping about in apoplectic fashion. Get a bloomin' grip is probably the nicest version of what he was shouting.

It was shabby from Blues but Plymouth did not capitalise and it's like that in the Championship. Every team has a dominant spell in every game; when Blues are in control, they usually make it count.

Plymouth recalled their player-of-the-year Krisztian Timar and record signing Simon Walton, giving them freshness and beef, and Rory Fallon put himself about to unsettle the unsteady defence.

Local scribes in the press box kept asking what was wrong with Birmingham, was this the best they could do, how many players were missing again etc? You could only shrug and suggest you'd seen it all before and let's see what had happened by the end . . . and then begin the Hail Mary's under your breath.

Sure enough Blues pulled themselves together and fought fire with fire. Quincy was like a relay sprinter powering down the back straight on the far left (the bright side) and
Blues at last began to ask questions of Plymouth's defence.

Maik Taylor was again in sharp, sound form. He has had a new lease of life since Dave Watson came in, unquestionably.

Even though Radhi Jaidi posted a contender for miss of the decade - three yards out, lashed as wide as high (maybe he should have headed it) - Blues had that steely, dangerous look about them.

Lee Carsley drilled in what turned out the only goal of the game, and Blues could have picked Plymouth off as the spaces opened up.

Another three points, a clean sheet for once - although Blues have defended far better before and not managed a shut-out - and off they went, leaving Plymouth, appropriately in their tangerine shirts, Tangoed Blues style.

On the subject of their kit, Plymouth decided not to play in their usual green shirts because they have had difficult in picking one another out before in night games because of those floodlights.

So they wore the away strip and if they didn't get Football League permission, then they are in trouble.

Football League regulation 35.1 states that each clubs' home kit shall be worn for all home matches during the season and no changes to these colours shall be permitted during the season.

Notwithstanding this, each club is authorised on one occasion per season to play a home match in an 'away' or 'alternative' strip.

There has been a precedent, at Blues funnily enough: in 1995 in the League Cup, Barry Fry's team took to St Andrew's wearing their third kit, a black-and-sliver striped number.

It was a blatant marketing ploy, and it brought them a slap on the wrists.

Next time it could be luminous jackets all round for the Pilgrims and carrots on the pre-match menu.