We actually did pretty well 2nd half, no complaints at all about that performance. Thought Dodds set us up well and deserves credit for that. Don't recall Birmingham having any serious efforts.
It was the 1st half the damage was done and much of it self inflicted. A really timid first 30mins, fortunate to only be 1 goal down and then just as we looked like we were getting a foothold in the game, Simons had his moment of complete madness.
Definitely there's positives we can take from the 2nd half. Reach looked decent and can hopefully provide adequate cover for Harvie. And we generally competed well, just lacked the finishing touch of quality to a few decent moves.
Hope Norris gets dropped now , should have not been number 1 in the first place. The first half was a disgrace of a performance a lot, a few of the players really got found out
Reach is an interesting one. Sort of reminds me a bit of Kevin Kilbane or Darren Anderton in being tall and rangey and with obvious quality on the ball.
But while many players are one footed, he looks exceptionally so for some reason.
But either way, good he got essentially a full game in today, and hopefully he can repeat that midweek, as there can't be the slightest chance Harvie is back. And if not Reach, who would play there?
I'll walk back my "white flag" comments slightly as that second half was superb. We were the better team with 10 men but just didn't quite find that killer chance. In the first half we showed Birmingham far too much respect and it was only once we started to press harder that we looked like we could get something from the game.
I was surprised to see Humphreys taken off fairly early as he was making us tick at the start of the half, and really surprised that McCleary played a full 90 minutes. Thought he was exceptionally poor today for his standards.
Wrexham drawing makes that no disaster, but we really need two wins next week to set ourselves up for that game. No Harvie or Simons for the next few games will be a big test.
Yeah I was a bit surprised Humphries was subbed. Very poor in the 1st half, but came to life in the 2nd. That said, overall the 2nd half was a decent performance, so no complaints on the decisions made.
Udoh was excellent again and it was crying out for the King so not surprised other creative midfielders took a back seat, wasn't enough in the end but still top two and on we roll.
Really good atmosphere today, top notch tannoy man, plenty of Birmingham bands being aired and it’s always nice to hear a traditional sing song at the start of the game.
Thought we weren’t in it at all for 30 mins, Norris goes down and Dodds has a chat and we were in the game from there on in. Will be interesting to see that Simons challenge on the highlights, looked a bit rash and not entirely necessary to me, but from my vantage point it didn’t look a straight red, knew as soon as I saw the ref purposely striding his way that he was off though.
Thought Norris was fine. Dodds reacted well to the red card, Brum didn't really do much.
We missed golden chances to put good balls in. None more than when Leahy had a free kick chance that a few months ago hed have shot with, instead today he puts a weak, afraid, floated ball in which gets cleared easily. We shirked opportunities there.
Too many of our players simply weren't brave enough. We can't blame Dodds for that
Overall I don't think that was too bad. I can't recall ever seeing a League 1 side press so aggressively as Birmingham did in the first 30. We simply couldn't deal with it and could have been 2 or 3 down.
Second half the tactical setup worked well. Looked to me like the box shape of Udoh-Gmac-Humphreys-Scowen made it harder for Birmingham to pick passes between the lines and instead forced them round the outside.
I imagine Birmingham are will do well next season as well. They appear to have a really strong side. Losing 1-0 away with 10 men is certainly no disgrace.
Crucially, we must now come out firing on Tuesday and get a home win. Anything else will start to cause real frustration after recent draws at home.
Reach did well I thought. Although an injury to Harvey is a massive loss if he's out for any length of time.
Impressed by the second half. With Simons out for the next three it's really an opportunity for Westergaard to step up and show us why we paid so much for him. If that's not going to happen I'm not sure that Leahy or Bakinson is the answer.
Instead I'd actually be tempted to stick with the three at the back experiment. Play a 352, drop both Fred and Garath (patience is running thin now with both of them), play Udoh and Kone together with Bez and Vokes on the bench. Play Scowen at the base of a midfield triangle with Humphreys and Lowry ahead of him and Reach and Back high up.
Although I am desperately disappointed, it's good to remember that Brum will probably be the best L1 side ever. We can moan at how much they've spent, but they were very well drilled, pressed brilliantly, and although created little, took their chance.
It did make me laugh in a pub after listening to Brum fans very pleased they'd beaten us so would probably win the league... Yes, I'd imagine so.
Pretty gutted tbh. I felt the first half was dreadful, very self inflicted and some poor performances. Our tempo was far too slow when playing from the back first half, particularly Taylor and Norris, and Birmingham didn’t need to work that hard to press us into a mistake. When the ball finally got near Udoh, Gmac, Fred or Cam there was nobody near them except blue shirts. Additionally, I’d forgotten Simons was on the pitch until that tackle so also disappointed in his game. He should have just seen the lad further into the corner.
Someone told me we only had 70 passes in the first half, and if this is true is dreadful. I honestly think we set up showing them way too much respect and the marking wasn’t tight enough at all in our deep areas.
Second half we did extremely well away against a top team and lots of credit to Dodds for going 3 at the back to change the feel of the game. I can only assume Harvie will be out injured for a while so if Reach can stay fit then I’d go wingbacks now with him (Leahy as backup) and Grimmer, with Low, Sonny and Taylor as 3x CB’s particularly with their attacking set play aerial threat which looked promising today.
I was impressed with Udoh, who only has scraps to feed off most of the game and ran his socks off. And Sonny was the game changer for me as he added calmness and experience to the defence.
So we move on, but I don’t want to watch first halves like that again any time soon.
Be nice to see Back back in the team...as he looked a good prospect to me. I am worried about the form of Fred and Gmac... perhaps the next two games will allay those fears. Or should we give Berry a go? To think, I was worried Joe Low might have trouble in this fixture and its Simons who gets the red. Low was a rock. Reach was fine in for Harvie I thought, which is a good sign. No Danes or Berry but Bradley and Reach coming in. It's been a strange old season. Onwards and upwards.
Comments
We beat them in the Championship, and we shall do so again next season.
We actually did pretty well 2nd half, no complaints at all about that performance. Thought Dodds set us up well and deserves credit for that. Don't recall Birmingham having any serious efforts.
It was the 1st half the damage was done and much of it self inflicted. A really timid first 30mins, fortunate to only be 1 goal down and then just as we looked like we were getting a foothold in the game, Simons had his moment of complete madness.
Definitely there's positives we can take from the 2nd half. Reach looked decent and can hopefully provide adequate cover for Harvie. And we generally competed well, just lacked the finishing touch of quality to a few decent moves.
Praying that Harvie's injury is not as bad as it looked. Good luck to the boy.
Hope Norris gets dropped now , should have not been number 1 in the first place. The first half was a disgrace of a performance a lot, a few of the players really got found out
Reach is an interesting one. Sort of reminds me a bit of Kevin Kilbane or Darren Anderton in being tall and rangey and with obvious quality on the ball.
But while many players are one footed, he looks exceptionally so for some reason.
But either way, good he got essentially a full game in today, and hopefully he can repeat that midweek, as there can't be the slightest chance Harvie is back. And if not Reach, who would play there?
I’m pretty sure you know who the answer to that question, @Malone ! I can hear the groans on here already.
I’m also pretty sure that Jasp would do a decent job there.
Still in our hands. We need a bit more self belief. 1-0 away to the a championship team, amd losing our most creative player isn't to bad.
Wrexham as well as a difficult next 5 have only 5 of their 13 left at home as well.
Tuesday will probably be a tight game, but any sort of win there puts pressure on Wrexham who have a tough one away at Huddersfield.
I'll walk back my "white flag" comments slightly as that second half was superb. We were the better team with 10 men but just didn't quite find that killer chance. In the first half we showed Birmingham far too much respect and it was only once we started to press harder that we looked like we could get something from the game.
I was surprised to see Humphreys taken off fairly early as he was making us tick at the start of the half, and really surprised that McCleary played a full 90 minutes. Thought he was exceptionally poor today for his standards.
Wrexham drawing makes that no disaster, but we really need two wins next week to set ourselves up for that game. No Harvie or Simons for the next few games will be a big test.
Yeah I was a bit surprised Humphries was subbed. Very poor in the 1st half, but came to life in the 2nd. That said, overall the 2nd half was a decent performance, so no complaints on the decisions made.
Udoh was excellent again and it was crying out for the King so not surprised other creative midfielders took a back seat, wasn't enough in the end but still top two and on we roll.
Really good atmosphere today, top notch tannoy man, plenty of Birmingham bands being aired and it’s always nice to hear a traditional sing song at the start of the game.
Thought we weren’t in it at all for 30 mins, Norris goes down and Dodds has a chat and we were in the game from there on in. Will be interesting to see that Simons challenge on the highlights, looked a bit rash and not entirely necessary to me, but from my vantage point it didn’t look a straight red, knew as soon as I saw the ref purposely striding his way that he was off though.
Shame it took us a while to get going, and the timing of the sending off was a real blow after we’d just been finding our feet.
Thought we played well 2nd half, and plenty of positives to take into two big games before Wrexham.
Great performance from Joe Low, and also thought Dan Udoh put in an impressive shift up front.
Wondering if there is a chance we might see 3 at the back and two up front again soon.
Thought Norris was fine. Dodds reacted well to the red card, Brum didn't really do much.
We missed golden chances to put good balls in. None more than when Leahy had a free kick chance that a few months ago hed have shot with, instead today he puts a weak, afraid, floated ball in which gets cleared easily. We shirked opportunities there.
Too many of our players simply weren't brave enough. We can't blame Dodds for that
Spirited second half was good to see.
Has a Wycombe fan ever been ejected under 10 Minutes in before? What was that about?
Note to self not to park near the ground if we go there again!
I saw that, quite funny
Just seen the red (was in the loo at the time). Initially thought yellow, but replay showed a fair red I imo.
I think I was in the cubicle next to you.
Sounded more like a hoover than a lawnmower.
Overall I don't think that was too bad. I can't recall ever seeing a League 1 side press so aggressively as Birmingham did in the first 30. We simply couldn't deal with it and could have been 2 or 3 down.
Second half the tactical setup worked well. Looked to me like the box shape of Udoh-Gmac-Humphreys-Scowen made it harder for Birmingham to pick passes between the lines and instead forced them round the outside.
I imagine Birmingham are will do well next season as well. They appear to have a really strong side. Losing 1-0 away with 10 men is certainly no disgrace.
Crucially, we must now come out firing on Tuesday and get a home win. Anything else will start to cause real frustration after recent draws at home.
Reach did well I thought. Although an injury to Harvey is a massive loss if he's out for any length of time.
The injury to Harvie was a massive low, had he been on the pitch it is likely that Simons wouldn’t have been making that cover tackle
Yellow at best.
Impressed by the second half. With Simons out for the next three it's really an opportunity for Westergaard to step up and show us why we paid so much for him. If that's not going to happen I'm not sure that Leahy or Bakinson is the answer.
Instead I'd actually be tempted to stick with the three at the back experiment. Play a 352, drop both Fred and Garath (patience is running thin now with both of them), play Udoh and Kone together with Bez and Vokes on the bench. Play Scowen at the base of a midfield triangle with Humphreys and Lowry ahead of him and Reach and Back high up.
I missed this getting those dry chips.
Good to see you in action son
You too dad.
Buying chips at football is a rookie mistake for an experienced campaigner like yourself.
Although I am desperately disappointed, it's good to remember that Brum will probably be the best L1 side ever. We can moan at how much they've spent, but they were very well drilled, pressed brilliantly, and although created little, took their chance.
It did make me laugh in a pub after listening to Brum fans very pleased they'd beaten us so would probably win the league... Yes, I'd imagine so.
Pretty gutted tbh. I felt the first half was dreadful, very self inflicted and some poor performances. Our tempo was far too slow when playing from the back first half, particularly Taylor and Norris, and Birmingham didn’t need to work that hard to press us into a mistake. When the ball finally got near Udoh, Gmac, Fred or Cam there was nobody near them except blue shirts. Additionally, I’d forgotten Simons was on the pitch until that tackle so also disappointed in his game. He should have just seen the lad further into the corner.
Someone told me we only had 70 passes in the first half, and if this is true is dreadful. I honestly think we set up showing them way too much respect and the marking wasn’t tight enough at all in our deep areas.
Second half we did extremely well away against a top team and lots of credit to Dodds for going 3 at the back to change the feel of the game. I can only assume Harvie will be out injured for a while so if Reach can stay fit then I’d go wingbacks now with him (Leahy as backup) and Grimmer, with Low, Sonny and Taylor as 3x CB’s particularly with their attacking set play aerial threat which looked promising today.
I was impressed with Udoh, who only has scraps to feed off most of the game and ran his socks off. And Sonny was the game changer for me as he added calmness and experience to the defence.
So we move on, but I don’t want to watch first halves like that again any time soon.
Be nice to see Back back in the team...as he looked a good prospect to me. I am worried about the form of Fred and Gmac... perhaps the next two games will allay those fears. Or should we give Berry a go? To think, I was worried Joe Low might have trouble in this fixture and its Simons who gets the red. Low was a rock. Reach was fine in for Harvie I thought, which is a good sign. No Danes or Berry but Bradley and Reach coming in. It's been a strange old season. Onwards and upwards.
Parked in Morrisons for £3.50 and had something to eat after the game until the traffic died down.
@username123 there was no prospect of seeing the player into the corner, he was gone!
It was only with the slide/lunge that Simons could make up the difference.
And it was a fairly dangerous position as our left back wasn't anywhere to be seen and Laird had the whole half to sprint into.