[Archived] Birmingham Last Game

[tony gale's mic]

Perfectly put and anyone who argues with that is being overly optimistic and kind to our club.

I would respond but I'd just be repeating myself...

[Eddie]

You may disagree with my opinon, but to call me fickle is ignoring the fact that I've been saying pretty similar things for the last couple of months.

[T4E]

As I said fine - get angry about today.

But don't make sweeping statements about the attitudes of the team, the manager and how we've done this season.

Haven't done mate. I'm pretty sure we're on the same page here.

[Biddy]

But don't make sweeping statements about the attitudes of the team

Not the whole team but certainly some individuals have caused upset and unrest this season. Roberts for one asking for a transfer when sulking at being on the bench. McCarthy for generally sulking all season, Savage before he left for again sulking on the bench.

[tony gale's mic]

Haven't done mate. I'm pretty sure we're on the same page here.

To be fair I would probably agree.

Eddie - If the cups hadn't conspired against us we would comfortably be in Europe now. We're improving as a team and a squad and for once this summer Hughes looks like he might have some money to spend.

Today was an abysmal performance and questions should be asked. But last day of the season deserves a fair assessment on our season as a whole and how we've done as a football club, and you seem incapable of doing that.

[Bobby G]

Disgraceful performance.

Every single team with something to play for came out today and made a stake for their claim. Except us. With the score tied at 1-1, news popped in that Reading were up 2-0 and Brum all but down, the crowd was dead, the players from Birmingham had their heads down, and we couldnt take advantage...What a joke.

And what makes it worse is Villa didnt win.

[T4E]

Today was an abysmal performance and questions should be asked. But last day of the season deserves a fair assessment on our season as a whole and how we've done as a football club, and you seem incapable of doing that.

He seems to have managed it here -

http://www.brfcs.co.uk/mb/index.php?s=&amp...st&p=607973

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

Jason Roberts......WE CAN/WE MUST do better than him this summer if we are to improve as a team,its as simple as that.

I will reiterate again....you dont mind seeing your team lose if the effort is there for all to see.

[tony gale's mic]

He seems to have managed it here -

http://www.brfcs.co.uk/mb/index.php?s=&amp...st&p=607973

A bit fairer than before, but I would contend the quality of football. When you look at the players running through our side, our team is built to be functional, not attractive. I would like to see us playing better football too and I wish we were better to watch. Even our best players such as Bentley and RSC don't play particularly attractive football themselves, they're just technically excellent at what they do.

We get some exciting players in the middle of the park, that could change.

[Bobby G]

One plus has been Emertons forays from central midfield. Its been too long since we had a central midfielder that can carry the ball. If only he could shoot a bit more, then it would be like a new signing.

[Raymond Rover]

I was baffled as to why Roberts was starting ahead of McCarthy, so to be honest as annoyed as I am at the result it does not surprise me one bit.

Lets use that money wisely and make sure we in the same place or better next season.

[Presty On Tour]

One plus has been Emertons forays from central midfield. Its been too long since we had a central midfielder that can carry the ball. If only he could shoot a bit more, then it would be like a new signing.

i agree, emerton has done an excellent job in the middle. with a pre-season in that position, he will surely only improve.

[Bobby G]

Considering the way Benni has played all season its no surprise Roberts plays in front of him, as at least he puts himself about and makes the effort. Yes he isnt a top quality striker, and he isnt a finisher, but had Benni been on form we wouldnt be having this conversation.

At 4 million, lets sell him and use it to get a quick quality striker. We need some damn pace in this team, as other than Emerton there is none in the team.

[1864roverite]

Well what can we say after that non performance ?

Why the over reaction from some our members who by the way are talking utter garbage ?

Eddie, as I recall you work in a bar. So for you to come out and blast Hughes is so funny I really felt like having a few beers tonight in Burnley just to see how the other half lives ! Get a grip. Today wasnt about tactics it was about getting a result and some of the players today were clearly lacking. How you are not employed on £3m a year by a top Premiership outfit baffles me because you really are the dogs ###### when it comes to footballing knowledge in tactics and game play. In fact whilst your on put yourself down for PM because you will win my vote NOT !

Today, Rovers were simply not at the game. No amount of game time would have seen a Rovers win.

Roberts was awful, how many chances is he allowed to miss before being dropped ?

Vogel has had his worse game in a Rovers shirt.

Nelsen/Samba worry me as a defensive partnership as they play too far apart.

Ried is never going to be a competent right back.

Warnock went off INJURED thats why he was replaced.

Bentley could have done better with his delivery although I blame both RSC and Roberts for a lack of a challenge when the crosses were flying in.

Brad - all is forgiven big man. The one mistake today in a fabulous season se tthe tone unfortunately.

Tugay wont play again, why ? Because he has run out of steam and is no longer a viable option for Rovers.

Dunny will struggle if he doesnt keep trim over summer.

Roberts will leave for Fulham or Bolton hopefully.

Bentley will either sign this week or be sold if we accept the People's report.

Anyhow, back on topic.

its the end of a great season. Yes we failed at the final hurdle for Europe but we did at least finish in 7th place. There are many clubs that would kill for that spot. Big clubs such as Spurs, Wham and Newcastle, not to mention City and Boro are so envious of Rovers 7th spot its unbelieveable that some can moan.

Get over it peeps. We have had a roller coaster ride this season. Some downers but plenty of ups.

Its now 6 weeks until the fixtures come out. Go and ge a rest, have a break and relax. No more chat about not renewing your tickets and another thing, we can all enjoy the summer as England are NOT in a championship were we have so much hope that they win it then let us down so YOU have NOTHING to moan about apart from how your garden is looking and how the wife loves her shopping.

I am proud of our league performance, angry and sad at todays result but the games gone, its over MOVE ON.

Tomorrow is just another day.

You can laugh at the dildo toting brothers crying in their suits or you can just go around town and smash woolies windows like our brethren inbreds over t'hills in dingleland do.

[modes98]

Hughes has to take the blame for failing to motivate the players.

I thought must have done a great job motivating them for the second half, we came out and battered brum for the first 20-25mins of it. Then they got a breakaway and had 2 chances in as many seconds and took one of them. With Villa 2-1 up it seemed largely irrelevant and the players seem to respond as much.

The chance at europe was not lost away to a team who had to win for their survival, it was lost with results against West Ham, Wigan, Spurs and a Tevez last minute equaliser.

Worst result of season is saved for last.

What about the 4-0 home defeat to Villa or the 4-1 defeat to Coventry? All midlands teams.

Shame to end a season on that note, but all round a decent campaign that would normally have seen us in europe. 10 Defeats out of 38, a record that is not to be sniffed at.

[Paul Mellelieu]

Eddie's not fickle, it's the same doom and gloom all season.

[rover6]

Right, if I'm overreacting, provide some examples that show what I said to be incorrect?

Well tactics wise, I'd suggest that Hughes isn't inept. He pulled out a unusual line-up to play Man U and it worked well. Now, I know that it can't be proved that playing our normal 4-4-2 we wouldn't have done as well (if not better) but the thing I liked about that was that it shows that Hughes is thinking innovatively about tactics and is willing to experiment, within reason, to improve the side. And it wasn't as if it was a throw of the dice in the style of Souey's wingless wonders tactical refuge - it was a plan formulated with composure and rationality, not desperation.

I wouldn't say Hughes was a tactical genius but I'm not sure such a thing exists - especially here in Britain where we don't intellectualise the game to the extent the continentals do. However, I do believe that he is a 'thinker' - a scholar of the game, as it were, who thinks about tactics and doesn't restrict management to motivating players and selecting eleven names. The worst managers are the arrogant so and sos who work by dogmatic rules and are too self-involved to believe that they can learn from others. (Souness once said that good players cannot be taught anything in training). I do not believe that Hughes is like that.

I share your general frustrations and this season I have despaired at Hughes on a few issues - his unconditional selection of Gamst, his bizarre faith in Mokoena, the recent selection of Reid at right back, ...however, these are outweighed considerably by the Hughes success stories, especially Santa Cruz and the fact that we finished 7th above a number of big-spenders.

And ultimately, whatever faults you find with Hughes, I look around and think, that we are lucky to have him rather than Sven, Curbishley, Southgate or some of the other numpties. There is room for improvement from Sparky but overall - the Coventry debacle was almost unforgivable - but we've got to be satisfied with him so far and hope that he follows David Moyes in steady improvement.

PS, as for Hughes' football style - I just thank that in today's situation of the Champs League club accumulating massive stellar squads which cause the rest to pale into semi-signficance, champagne football won't get you far. In fact, Souey's Rovers were a case in point. We tried to play slow, contrived passing football and we almost took the bullet because of it (after a first good season). Look at Moyes' Everton - not exactly mellifluous footy with Lescott scoring so many. It's a consequence of the inequality in the game that the economically inferior have to resort to direct footy to compete at the top.

[thenodrog]

3rd best team in the land after the Champions league billy big-time. moneymen is a fantastic achievement judged in any way shape or form!

Unfortunately (and despite looking the better team for most of the match) the desire of the fans to be involved in european competition did not appear to be replicated in the team. No way were Brum 4-1 better tham us BUT the defining moment imo being the cross from Bert onto the goal line with the match at 1-1 and Jason Roberts not lunging to take ball, the two brum defenders and Uncle Tom Cobley and all with him into the net. He simply did not appear to want to score badly enough. Alan Shearer would have broken every bone in his body to score that!

Never mind Sparky and his management team it's obvious that the players view uefa competition through the inter toto cup as one big NO-NO. Puzzling really.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

On a brighter note I do believe Rovers have just pocketed 10 million for finishing 7th.

[brian_gallagher85]

With the sale of Roberts that's bound to be enough to buy of a decent striker to replace him right...how much do Conference players cost nowadays anyway?

[tony gale's mic]

We should probably try and flog him to one of the promoted sides ASAP, hopefully they'll be generous as they won't have spent much of their extra cash yet, Roberts will be happy at guaranteed first team football and I actually think he could do a good job for one of those sides.

[gumboots]

Well, I was feeling bad about the performance today and then I read some of the over the top comments on here about Mark Hughes and thought I can't match the nastiness of some of this. Yes i was furious with the apparent lack of effort from some or rather most of our players. Even Brad had an off day and Santa Cruz looked fairly average. For large parts of the game Emerton looked to be the only player who actually realised that we had to win regardless and then wait and see the other results.

However, I thought the injury Pedersen got early on was the reason he was taken off. Vogel has played some big games recently after months without a game and I thought Hughes perhaps felt he was getting tired. Warnock had been treated earlier and had had cramp. I think all the subs were possibly explained by injury. Only real complaint was why was McCarthy not on sooner when we had them under the cosh and could have demoralised them with another goal.

Other thing is those Birmingham players were not just playing to avoid relegation. A lot of them were playing for transfers. Kapo said straight after his MOTM performance that he didn't know if he'd be there next year. Coincidence? - I think not. If you'd offered most of us 7th place at the start of the season we'd have taken it pretty sharpish. If you'd offered us 58 points we'd have said Yes please. What makes today's performance so frustrating was that, having got ourselves back in the hunt for a European place, we then threw it away and that, for fans, is hard to take.

[brian_gallagher85]

That's the main reason for everyones massive anger gumboots. We had it in our hands with 15-20mins left and we totally fell apart like the Brummies should have done.

Emerton was the only player who did anything positive today, although I thought that had Mc Carthy started Vogel may have had at least one assist this evening.

Please Hughes get us a decent RB/ play a RB there and get rid of Roberts NOW!!!!

[rover6]

Roberts is a useful sub but he sulks when he's on the bench, so it'd be best if we could sell him. If players like him and Heskey actually had some technical ability, they'd be taking over the world, probably literally.

[gumboots]

Yes and I understand the anger (as I said, I was angry/depressed/felt cheated) but to extend it to Hughes is useless/sell most of the squad etc etc is not justified. Every manager gets tactics wrong, fails to get players perfoming, loses games he should get his team winning. If they didn't the league would be sterile, with nobody ever losing or winning. It's just bad that all our worst nightmares have happened together today and to talk of not renewing your season ticket on the back of it is ludicrous. This is the time when we should be taking a leaf out of Derby fans' books and getting our season tickets renewed because without cash and support our team is going nowhere. We say Hughes needs to buy so and so or do this and that but then talk about taking away our support. We lost a game. We could have qualified for Europe but we didn't and when the season starts again I'll be there (well, probably not first game as I might still be in France) with all my hopes and dreams for next season and I hope most of us will be too.