I didn't rule out our chances, I merely said I'm starting to lose hope and I made no comment as to whether or not Neil was the man to take us back to the premiership.
I don't see todays team selection as a step forward, if anything the opposite, nor do I see that the result today should give any grounds to give us confidence that we can make a top 2 spot. We are 10 points off a top 2 spot and 7 points off 4th place, although in truth it's only the top 2 places that count as 4th to 6th is only a play off place. The stats, 65% possession, 4 shots on target, are far from reasuring and having looked at Birmingham's results against the teams above us it does not suggest that I'm being overly negative.
Birmingham 0 Derby 4
Birmingham 2 Watford 1
Birmingham 0 Bournemouth 8
Brentford 1 Birmingham 1
Birmingham 2 Ipswich 2
Middlesborough 2 Birmingham 0
Wolves 0 Birmingham 0
With the exception of Wolves every other team has at least scored against them. So I'm not convinced that consuling ourselves that they are a tough side is necessarily true.
So to put our current position in context the last time we were in 8th prior to the Brentford result was the 6th of December at which point we were 7 points off 2nd place. Far from making up ground we appear to be losing it.
I thought when Neil first became manager that the squad didn't need a major overhall and I was still expecting us to reach the play offs, I'm starting to think we are going to need a bigger clear out in the summer than I thought. Looking at todays selection with the exception of Bassong being involved it could have been a Adams team and if Birmingham had got a lucky break and scored late in the second half many people on here would be consuling themselves by saying that we had the best squad in the division and how unlucky we had been.