Blackpool 2 Birmingham City 0 - Post match analysis
Jan 26 2009 by Andy Walker, Birmingham Post, at Bloomfield Road
Birmingham City manager Alex McLeish may insist that now is not the time to hit the panic button but his finger must be edging closer to that big red dial by the day.
Yes, Birmingham are still third in the Championship, yes, they are still only two points behind Reading in the automatic promotion places and yes, they still boast one of the strongest squads in English football’s second-tier.
However those statements belie the club’s dreadful performances since mid-December but none were more alarming than the dire display at Bloomfield Road.
A convincing victory on the Fylde Coast wouldn’t just have just catapulted the Blues back in between their promotion rivals Wolverhampton Wanderers and Reading, it would have shown a side of Birmingham that their biggest critics, the fans, have been waiting to see all season.
Instead Birmingham found themselves out-played, out-thought and out-fought by a street-wise Blackpool team, reduced to ten men for the final 16 minutes.
If tomorrow’s match against Derby County, on a night when Wolverhampton and Reading do battle at the Madejski Stadium, wasn’t already marked up as a must-win encounter, then it surely is now.
To think it all started so brightly for Birmingham on a chilly yet bright afternoon at Bloomfield Road. A fully fit-again Sebastian Larsson and Scott Sinclair looked hungry on either flank while Hameur Bouazza’s menacing ventures appeared to initially terrorise the Seasiders’ back-line.
With barely two minutes on the clock, Bouazza latched on to a Lee Bowyer throughball, cut inside his marker and with Cameron Jerome and Sinclair screaming in space to his left, the Algerian opted to fire a low effort straight at the Blackpool goalkeeper Paul Rachubka. Sadly it was one of only two clear cut goal-scoring opportunities that the visitors had all game.
Tactically McLeish appeared to struggle to find a way to break down the well-drilled Blackpool side. Throughout the 90 minutes Bouazza drifted from the centre of midfield to the left-flank and finished the game as a wing back. Sinclair was pushed up from left-wing to striker during the first-half, Larsson ended the match at right-back, albeit due to an injury to Stuart Parnaby, while James McFadden and Kevin Phillips were desperately thrown on to no avail.
Birmingham’s final substitute Keith Fahey looked frankly bewildered when he was introduced to the left side of midfield in the 66th minute.
The curse of the old-boy is what started Birmingham’s downfall as the lively DJ Campbell continued his fine form for Blackpool since arriving on-loan from Leicester City by heading home the hosts’ 13th minute opener.
Having fired a warning shot at the Birmingham goalkeeper Maik Taylor moments earlier, Campbell nodded home Gary Taylor-Fletcher’s exquisitely delivered cross at the far post after Parnaby had found himself caught in possession.
