Match Day Thread Birmingham v Hull City.

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McGregor played well - could have been 3-0 at half time.

Aina had a horrible afternoon. “Pineapple head”, as the away fans called him, constantly took him on and won. Lots of passes went to the opposite or out.

Dawson lost lots of challenges.

Mazuch limited Dawson’s damage.

Clark tried hard. Put in a few decent crosses but not on the same wavelength with Wilson.

Bowen - probably Man of the Match. Could have scored late on.

Larsson ran and ran and ran. Tried to contest the midfield but struggled with Henriksen often caught in possession. Most of his passes were sideways.

Henriksen as said above. Fans turned on him again.

Wilson’s worst performance for us - but not because he played badly but because he didn’t really do much/get to do much. Still one of our better players on the pitch.

Irvine showed lots of effort but that’s about it. Tried to make things happen.

Hernandez had no support whatsoever. Chased lost balls that were hoofed at him. Gave up second half.

—-

Grosicki came on and sulked.

Campbell needs to show more strength when contesting. Let a few things go easily.

Toral basically didn’t give the ball away, could have scored late on and sorted out our midfield but it was already too late. Possibly should have started.

Hw did we look in the warm up Cortez..?
 
Most of the travelling fans ended up back on theco course during the warm-up as the first of three blizzards during the game struck. The snow was blowing inside to the concourse. Don’t think anybody saw the warm up - even the players and Nigel <laugh>

Gaylord...
 
Adkins will have learned a lot since he took over the mess Ehab and Slutsky had created.
Wilson & MacDonald aside these are not his players.
We all agree we have looked unfit.
I've criticised Adkins after defeats but I do think we have a decent manager in place.
I'll judge Adkins 10 games into next season but saying that Ehab will give him **** all to work with.
 
Seriously there is a lack of mental toughness in this side. One point would have been ok today but again we looked to have had a good beating. We let a team on the back foot right back into the mix. There is talent in City but lack of heart. We need another couple of leaders on the pitch. There will be a search for another captain in the summer. We still need another three wins to be safe. Alarmingly again we seem to fold against our rivals. No time to relax. The hard work starts again.

Not just lack of leaders, or mental toughness, but lack of physical toughness. We saw it against Millwall and we saw it again today, in bucket loads. We are missing 2 or 3 hard men, players with physical presence. Like Millwall did, they effectively bullied and outfought us today, like men playing boys almost. Which made it look like we weren't up for or as some even said daftly that we didn't like the weather (WTF). It wasn't either, it's that we are sadly lacking an Ashbee or 3.
 
Not sure about the Ashbee will make us better obsession.
If he played nowadays he'd spend more time suspended than he would on the pitch.
Fair play to Brum they had to win today and they did.
 
Not sure about the Ashbee will make us better obsession.
If he played nowadays he'd spend more time suspended than he would on the pitch.
Fair play to Brum they had to win today and they did.

I wouldn't call it an obsession so much as repeated stating of the bleedin obvious.
Can't see why an Ashbee type (or 3) would spend more time suspended than on the pitch. They had stronger, more physical aggressive players on the pitch than us, just like Millwall did, and no one got sent off.
If a team at our level lets us play football, we have a chance. If a team at our level gets in our face, we haven't got the players to handle it. It's not about mental strength or not being up for it, it's the make up of our squad. It's been said many times that rather than a carefully crafted squad, ours is a right jumble thrown together, that Adkins, just like Slut, just like Phelan, are having to try to get something out of. The fault lays at the feet of Enob (and to some degree Darnborough).
Fully agree with the 'fair play to Brum' bit. As poor as we were, their players and Monk deserve credit.They did a good job on us today.
 
IMAO it was key game to guarantee the survival..it's pretty disapointing to not win another sixpointer. Looks like it became Adkins style (loses to Sunderland and Bolton away, draws vs Reading and Barnsley at home). It's very risky.
 
I half expected to wake up to this result, it's happened so many time before. In some mitigation, having the extra game against Ipswich in midweek, may well have had some impact on the drop off of performance. Steve Bruce always said players can play 3 or 4 games in a week, but they cannot maintain the same level of performance in every game. If you drop 5% in your levels, and the opposition up theirs by 5%, then that can make the difference.

From what I see, Dawson had a shocker, and he certainly cannot play 3 games in a week now. In fact his place in the team must me at risk, as he seems to put in more bad performances than good these days.

Certainly not out of the wood yet, with Villa (though they are having the Bruce wobble at the moment) and Wolves coming up the next 2 games, lose them both and we are right back in it again.
 
Didn't see that coming after 2 passionate performances. Are all the City team big ELO fans looking for freebies and meeting up backstage with Jeff Lynne