Blues’ nose dive
I had no doubt that Birmingham would win today. I was at St. Andrew’s for the last game of the 1992/93 season when the Blues had to beat Charlton to stay up.
Saying the atmosphere was hostile does not do it justice and if Peter Garland’s shot had gone in instead of hitting the post I feared we would not got out alive.
I almost cheered when John Robinson missed a sitter late on and the Blues won 1-0 to stay in the then 1st Division (2nd tier).
Today the Blues won their final home game again, but so did everyone else. What were the odds on Birmingham, Blackburn, Plymouth and Sheffield Wednesday all winning?
Therefore, it is Birmingham that fall to the 3rd tier next season, the first time since 1995 and there will be very few neutrals upset after the way their new owners including Tom Brady have acted.
Blackburn manager John Eustace sacked when City sat 6th because their new egotistical owners wanted to bring a “winning mentality and a culture of ambition.” They then employed Wayne Rooney. I wonder what he’s thinking tonight as he throws another burger on the grill.
I am happy we don’t have to face Sheffield Wednesday again, but we have had some titanic promotion battles with Huddersfield over the years, and Rotherham are always competitive and are now managed by the lump Steve Evans.
Pompey and Derby depart but Wrexham, Stockport and Mansfield join. Bolton take a healthy lead into the 2nd leg of the play-off’s on Tuesday, and a day later I think Peterborough will overcome their 0-1 deficit to Oxford.
Finally, massive congratulations to Ipswich Town. We followed their fortunes for some years, but their new owners found the secret sauce, and Kieran McKenna, of course. What a hire he was.
I saw a crazy stat today. In two seasons Ipswich have won consecutive promotions (the Addicks did it in 1934-36) have lost just 10 games in two seasons, scored 193 goals and achieved 194 points. Unbelievable.
Yep well done Ipswich incredible stat – lets hope we can now emulate that achievement over the next couple of seasons. ❤ COYR
Wrexham will up there if they spend big Jamie vardy ect… we will be building a new squad yet again so I don’t expect automatic promotion as you can’t keep building new squads, it takes time & we say that every season & Unfortunately I think there’s a lot stronger teams next season brum play off losers & wrexham
Hats off to Ipswich…well deserved promotion.
We need to adopt the philosophy of Ipswich and with Jones at the helm I feel confident that their will be a major improvement.
Terrible decision by the board to sack Eustace and bring in Rooney. I think they thought it would be good for sponsorship. However the worst decisions were not buying a striker and too many injury prone players. Despite the relegation most fans are optimistic about the new regime. The previous owners had us renting our own ground with debts of £120m and an ageing squad on huge wages. Most of these players are out of contract in the summer so a big rebuild is needed. The ground looks great with all 4 stands back in full voice. The debts have been wiped off and after years of relying on freebies and loans we may actually be over our FFP issues. League 1 is gonna be a tough physical league so our ‘nice’ players will need to be replaced with a few more aggressive players. Actually looking forward to visiting a few different grounds next year. It was a strange relegation without the expected anger with fans singing ‘Que Sera Sera whatever will be will be we’re going to Shrewsbury’. Time for a reset and replacing these non performers with those fit to wear the shirt. Cannot wait to visit the valley.
Thanks for commenting Jam. Always liked visiting St. Andrews. Proper stadium, and happy to see it all back. I was listening to someone yesterday saying what a disaster it would have been if you’d been relegated under your old ownership, so that is one blessing. Tough old graveyard of a league is L1 but looking forward to our games next season.