March 12th 2011. You’ll remember that date. Is the day that a Birmingham City team, barely alive, almost took us to a replay in the FA Cup. Barely three weeks have passed since that day, with just the one game played since, yet it already seems so long ago that SuperKevinDavies nodded the ball across the box for Lee Chung-Yong to head T’Wanderers to Wembley.
Heavy hearted, I’m still not going.
Anyhoo, second bottom and seemingly out of breath after their heroic exploits to qualify for Europe, Birmingham are currently looking on course to be the first team from outside the top flight to compete in Europe since West Ham in the 1980-81 Cup Winner’s Cup. A remarkable achievement.
Vital Quotes:
‘Alex McLeish was my first manager…..he’s a remarkable man and a fantastic manager….no easy games in the Barclay’s Premier League….fantastic players and a great stadium….blah blah blah’.
‘We’ve shown before when we’ve picked up injuries that we can cope with it and what it does is give somebody an incentive to step up to the plate and really finish the season on a high. But all the lads who have been on international duty have returned fit and healthy, which is positive news’ St. Owen obviously had one eye on Yankees and Detroit kicking off (do they kick off) the MLB season. Step up to the plate indeed.
‘There is no doubt the break gave respite to some players who were ready to explode, ready to implode.’ Alex McLeish, you canna change the laws of physics, as another Scotsman used to say.
Birmingham City Team News:
Birmingham have had an injury list longer than Kate and Wills’ guest list, but it appears to be getting shorter.
Zigic played in midweek for Serbia so may be using his rather large frame at some point against Wheater and Cahill. Lee Bowyer has been training all week and Barry Ferguson will be feeling his broken ribs until the summer. His own ribs, not Bowyer’s. Jiranek has had an op on his toe and is doubtful as is Hleb who has a knee problem.
Kevin Phillips is still old.
Player to watch: Ben Foster
Birmingham’s defensive deficiences were shown in the reverse game at T’Reebok when Bolton came back from two down with ten men after Jussi had happy slapped Roger Johnson. Bolstered by a forward line that now includes Daniel Sturridge, Foster, who reminds me of Aaron Dingle out of Emmerdale (not in that way), should be kept as busy as he was in the cup.
Bolton Wanderers Team News:
Stuart Holden starts his long road to recovery, a road so long Cormac McCarthy has written a book about it. Added onto this, Mark Davies has not shaken off the ankle injury he picked up in the cup game. This leaves Tamir Cohen to step into the breach and make like he made at the beginning of last season.
Zat Knight is a couple of games shy of a return. Other than that, as far as I can ascertain, that leaves only Sean Davis and Sam Ricketts. Everyone else is on loan.
Player to watch: Daniel Sturridge
He scored for the U-21s last weekend and, as a reward, got to enjoy a trip home early alongside Fabrice Muamba. Hasn’t scored in two games, so it’s about time he pulled his socks up and earnt his money, hmmmm?
Match Facts & Stats
Bolton and Birmingham have faced each other 115 times in the league, with Bolton holding a 46-37 advantage, with Birmingham winning 30 of them at home.
Bolton’s last league victory there was last season, Lee and Cohen netting in a 2-1 win.
Bolton’s leading scorer in the fixture is George Gibson with ten between the wars. In the Premier League, El Hadji Diouf, Nicolas Anelka and SuperKevinDavies have all scored twice against the Blues.
Having said that, Birmingham’s defence has been so bad against us in the Premier League they have allowed Delroy Facey and Ricardo Vaz Te both scored against them.
Ref Watch:
Young Michael Oliver. Oliver. The name brings to mind Oliver Twist. That must make Clattenburg Fagin. Just more twisted.
He’s taken charge of two of our games this season, the 2-0 loss to Stoke and our 1-0 victory over Wigan in the cup. So, if we can take the 1-0 win in the cup and add it to Stoke, that means we’re going to beat Stoke 1-0.
Twisted logic. Again, like Mark Clattenburg.
Oliver’s pick a pocket or two Bolton card count stands at four. He has yet to book on opposition opponent in a Bolton game this season.
Match Prediction:
What do you want from me? To not say it will be 2-0. OK then, it won’t be 2-0. To Birmingham.
Next Fixtures:
More relegation fodder, this time in that shape of Stratford Olympic Ham, next Saturday.