[Archived] Birmingham Preview

[perthblue02]

Only one reason for choosing the Birmingham preview, used to love playing subbuteo with that team in the classic 70's penguin kit, which was customised with fantastic beards and moustaches of that period.

Often the butt of many a joke because of its urban landscape and greyness the second city has more canals than Venice, more trees than Paris and more parks than any other city in Europe.

It also has the largest local authority in Europe, employing twice as many people as the European Commission.

Famous food brands that originated in Birmingham include Typhoo tea, Bird's Custard, Blue Bird Toffee, Bournville cocoa, Cadbury chocolate and HP Sauce.

Birmingham is home to the Balti, a spicy, aromatic Kashmiri dish, with over 100 Balti houses attracting over 20,000 visitors per week. Balti means ‘bucket’ but it is actually a flat bottomed wok (although for those who used to go to Dean's Curry House on King St, bucket is probably more apt)

Enough of the City now onto the football club

USELESS FACT'S ABOUT OUR VISITOR'S

David Dunn scored Birmingham's first premiership goal on the first day of the 2003-04 season from a penalty against Tottenham

Fans Anthem is a version of keep right on to the end of the road it's popularity is credited to player Alex Govan who sang it on the coach on the way to the 1956 cup quarter final and then said it was his favourite song in an interview in the build up to the semi final in the same year, which supporters duly obliged by singing at the game .

Founded same year as Rovers, as Small Heath Alliance (1875), change their name to Small heath in 1888 then Birmingham in 1905 and finally Birmingham City in 1943

1888 became the first club to become a limited company with a board of Directors

Birmingham became the first English club side to take part in an official European competition when they played their first group game in the inaugural Inter-Cities Fairs Cup competition on 15 May 1956

In 1992 fans raised the money to purchase Paul Peschisolido (wonder how much Karen Brady chipped in ?)

Birmingham have had their fair share of colourful owners which I won't go into here as we have our own problems on that front, but the last lot shared a passion for not submitting company accounts.

Birmingham have never won the old first Division (Premiership) but have won the Championship (old Div 1 , Div 2 ) on four occasions and also a play off win

Despite a rich history the FA cup has eluded City despite them being runners up on two occasions.

Two sides of Birmingham's home ground St Andrew's were badly damaged by bombing during the second world war whilst the main stand was damaged when firemen mistook petrol for water (Did Venky's run fire response teams in the 40's?)

That footballing knowledge powerhouse in Pune Mrs Can'tdecide is known to be a big admirer of Birmingham City , so much so she employed a ginger Scot to help secure relegation as tribute to McLeish's reign at St Andrews.

She was also keen on following B'rum's trailblazing lead on having a women doing the day to day running of the club (ala Karen Brady) unfortunately Mrs Kean was only available for telephone advice so Can'tdecide let her boy Stevie elect a pair of t**s to the board as a compromise and hence we have our own comedy breast version of Karen Brady arise Sir Paul of Self Preservation and Sir Paul of Self Preservation's shelving mate.

HEAD TO HEAD

League Matches Home (Total in brackets , Rovers home games in Bold)

Rovers wins - 34 (41) -

Draws 12 (25) -

Birmingham wins 7 (40)

Rovers have scored 132 (184) goals

Birminghams' 70 (167)

First game took place in 1895 and Rovers come out 9-1 winners still a record defeat for Birmingham although matched with the same score against Sheffield Wednesday in 1930

League Cup

Rovers wins 2 Draws 1 Birmingham wins 1

FA Cup

Rovers wins 0 Birmingham wins 3

Edited Here

TRANSFERS

not a complete list but just a flavour

Players moving directly from Rovers to Birmingham. David Dunn (2003) , Damien Johnston (2002), Mike Newell( 1996) , Martin Taylor(2004) , Dwight York (2005), Jeff Kenna (2001)

Players moving directly from Birmingham to Rovers : Tommy Briggs (1953?) Andy Kennedy (1988) , Andy Needham (1976), Mike Rathbone (1978), Robbie Savage(2004), Bill Smith (1952) , Gordan Taylor(1975), David Dunn (2007)

Rovers personal who have been at, coached , played for or managed Birmingham at some point ,

Howard Kendall, Fred Pickering , David Speedie , Chris Sutton, Jim Smith , Mark Bowen , Eric Black, Alan Ainscow, Lee Carsley, Howard Gayle, Roger Jones, Alan Kelly, Alan Miller, Vince O'keefe ,

Phil Starbuck,

AT THE MOMENT

One of the things that every Rovers supporter should have their fingers crossed for is that the referee makes Birmingham play in the 3^rd kit a glorious Barbie pink number

After suffering relegation in 2010/2011 and off loading their best players and Scott Dann, Birmingham's squad also suffered because of a transfer embargo implemented by the Football League because of financial irregularities , this was lifted in July 2012 and rebuilding the playing squad began therefore their current position of 18^th is no surprise but results have shown a marked improvement over the last 7 games..

Signings since the embargo was lifted are :

Peter Løvenkrands (Newcastle United), David Lucas (Rochdale) Free, Hayden Mullins (Portsmouth) Free, Darren Ambrose (Crystal Palace) ,Paul Robinson (Bolton Wanderers) Free, Papa Bouba Diop(West Ham United) Free

Loans in - Ravel Morrison (West Ham United), Ben Gordon (Chelsea), Paul Caddis (Swindon Town), Leroy Lita (Swansea City), James Hurst (West Bromwich Albion)

The Most notable outgoing before the season started was Ben foster joining WBA, whose number one shirt was taken by the highly rated 19 year old Jack Butland

Birmingham's top scorer in the league this season is Marlon King with six from 11 appearances

Having played 7 away games this season winning 2 , drawing 2 and losing 3 they have picked up some decent results on their travels winning at Leeds and Brighton and narrowly losing at Cardiff, so with our current management and squad in transitional phase expecting a tough encounter . In their seven league away games this season Birmingham have only conceeded 10 goals and tend to try and hit teams on the break whilst packing defence and midfield which could cause us problems especially in the middle.

From what my Brummie mate has told me Lee Clark and Terry McDermot seem to be getting to grips with the chaos surrounding the club having only been in the managerial post since June 2012 and the feeling around St Andrew's is that Clark's fairly successful spell at Huddersfield was no fluke, and there is a confidence that by the end of the season and a couple of decent signings B'rum's recent decline might be turning the corner.

Every confidence in Berg stamping his own mark on the squad but feel that this game as come too soon to see the benefit considering the playing squad seem to have been at a Butlin's holiday camp for the last 20 months. Fitness and control of midfield will be key in this game

Heart say's 2-1 Rovers , Head say's 1-1 draw

Apologies For the lack of an opponents view, but the person who was doing it for me as had a bereavement in his family , if it gets round to finishing it will post it.

[Salgado Is A Hero]

They're also the team who have been relegated from the top flight the most.

They have some good players and I predict this will be a tough game.

Marlon King is very good in this league and could bully our centre backs if he's on form....if Zigic plays I can't see us winning many headers at the back.....Ambrose is a good player.,,,so is their right winger Chris Burke who used to play for Cardiff.

Lovenkrands used to be proper fast when he played for Rangers but I don't think he's quite as rapid anymore.

They have premier league experience at the back in Carr, Spector, other Paul Robinson and Curtis Davies....although particularly the latter two were hardly outstanding in the prem.

Their best player is probably Nathon Redmond though, another fast, tricky winger, so I predict him and Burke will trouble our full backs and I hope we get one on loan in before then.....they're both pretty fast and I wouldn't like Givet up against them.

I spoke to a couple of Birmingham fans about 6 weeks ago in a pub and they told me they weren't playing well at all and fans were getting a bit restless with their new manager.

Not longer after that they lost 5-0 at home to Barnsley....they also lost at home to bottom-of-the-table Ipswich at the weekend.

But yea, they've also won at Leeds and Brighton so they shouldn't be taken lightly.

Let's hope Berg starts with a home win in front of as big a crowd as possible, that the rest of us might still get to witness as this game is being shown on some tv channels around the world.

[perthblue02]

Cheers for the update Salgado on the current players , I left that bit to my Brummie mate hence the lack of it in the preview, only seen them once this season that was the Barnsley game so couldn't really judge them..Apparently they bottle it at home and play better away

What countries , channels are showing the game live ? Not on in Aus

[1864roverite]

1-0 and the result could go either way

[Salgado Is A Hero]

Cheers for the update Salgado on the current players , I left that bit to my Brummie mate hence the lack of it in the preview, only seen them once this season that was the Barnsley game so couldn't really judge them..Apparently they bottle it at home and play better away

What countries , channels are showing the game live ? Not on in Aus

Apparently it is being shown in Norway, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Serbia, Slovakia and Sri Lanka....maybe some more as well......the website I use mentioned all but Norway but I think Puffsan said it is being played there as well so possibly in other parts of Scandanavia.

[Steve Moss]

One of the things that every Rovers supporter should have their fingers crossed for is that the referee makes Birmingham play in the 3^rd kit a glorious Barbie pink number

I've a new motivational suggestion for Berg: Adopt a pink 3rd kit. Every time we lose, make our squad play in it until they redeem themselves with a win.

[ABBEY]

After last night I'm very confident . 2-0 to rovers

[NeRvOuS Wr3Ck]

Would love to see a 3-0 win but think it would be a hard earned 1-0 win

[Amo]

Think it's important we keep a clean sheet in this game. After conceding 4 in 2 on the back of two clean sheets, we need to get some consistency at the back.

[Mike E]

I'm optimistic of a win. Don't really care how it comes, but after last night's showing at Hudders, it could even be stylish! I call 2-0 Rovers.

ROVERS ROVERS RAH RAH RAH!!!

[Puffsan]

Yea you are right Salgado. Norwegian tv will show this game as well as Peterborough away so two good weekends coming up. First rovers game on tv since Coco lost to Middlesbrough, and I'm really looking forward to it.

From what I could tell from radio rovers and twitter feeds yesterday we improved a lot and huddersfield barely came to any chances apart from the two they scored on.

Birmingham is a team we should and must beat. I hope the fans are coming back to ewood to give the team and berg full support.

[philipl]

Good preview.

Improvement in crowd, performance and score.

3-1 to Rovers.

[m1st]

AT THE MOMENT

One of the things that every Rovers supporter should have their fingers crossed for is that the referee makes Birmingham play in the 3^rd kit a glorious Barbie pink number

After suffering relegation in 2010/2011 and off loading their best players and Scott Dann, Birmingham's squad also suffered because of a transfer embargo

Wonderful preview, perthblue, especially for the above emphasised bit!

Allowing for the fact that I've always been a "glass-half-full fan", I've got a really good feeling about this game.

Given the improvement towards the end of last Saturday's peformance and in the game at 'Uttersfield, I reckon that we can win this one and win it well. Assuming that Henning and his team have worked on the defence, I'm hoping for a 2-0 or 3-0 result.

RTID!

[m1st]

AT THE MOMENT

One of the things that every Rovers supporter should have their fingers crossed for is that the referee makes Birmingham play in the 3^rd kit a glorious Barbie pink number

After suffering relegation in 2010/2011 and off loading their best players and Scott Dann, Birmingham's squad also suffered because of a transfer embargo implemented by the Football League because of financial irregularities

Wonderful preview perthblue, specially the phrase I've high-lighted; some names evoked there that many of us had consigned to the mists of antiquity . [Phil Starbuck!! !]

As a perennial "glass-half-full fan", I'm hoping that Henning & Co have the defence sorted out so that we can look for a 2-0 [at least!] win.

[Rover_Shaun]

Jansen v Brum at 4mins 9secs

We have NOBODY who can do this now in our skill befeft squad of surrender monkeys

[Mike E]

Jansen v Brum at 4mins 9secs

We have NOBODY who can do this now in our skill befeft squad of surrender monkeys

I'd argue Rochina and possibly Vukcevic could do that. But Jansen is a legend for a reason

[tonyoz]

What countries , channels are showing the game live ? Not on in Aus

It's live on Setanta in Australia. I'm really looking forward to seeing Henning's first home game. For those lucky enough to be there, I think the atmosphere will be electric. A convincing victory will be a massive lift for the club.

[Derbyshire Blue]

It's live on Setanta in Australia. I'm really looking forward to seeing Henning's first home game. For those lucky enough to be there, I think the atmosphere will be electric. A convincing victory will be a massive lift for the club.

According to Setanta Aus website the Leicester-Forest game is on Live, no Rovers game at 3pm

L

[Pelio]

I'd argue Rochina and possibly Vukcevic could do that. But Jansen is a legend for a reason

I forgot how good Jansen was, he was a truly stunning player. We also scored some fantastic goals that season too and it highlights what us fans have been missing from this team for the past 2 years (probably longer). However, at least we now have some hope, I can see Rochina scoring a goal like that, and it seems Berg has the same desire to reach that level of football we had all those years ago.

So far, I've been very impressed with him, the changes he's made to the team and the style of football he wants to play. Playing the likes of Henley, Vukcevic, Rochina and maybe Rosado gives the team a fresh look, and hopefully if Murphy and Etuhu can protect the back 4 better, the wingers/ Rochina can concentrate on creating chances for Rhodes.

Like I said, there is hope, albiet a small one. But starting on Saturday, if they can put in a good performance, win by a couple of goals, and generate momentum in the next few games to put a run together, the belief grows that possibly we may have a good season after all..

[Blue n White Rover]

Just a side note. People say Rovers are disadvantaged because somebody posts the starting line up. I received the Liverpool line up for tonight's game, yesterday.

I have been getting the line ups for the past year. Doesn't make a difference. Oh and just for evidence:

Jones, Downing, Coates, Wisdom, Carragher, Flannagan, Shelvey, Henderson, Coady, Cole, Morgan.

[LeChuck]

Just a side note. People say Rovers are disadvantaged because somebody posts the starting line up

I do love the idea that some people think the opposition will alter their prepartion for the game based on a post on a messageboard.

I think we're getting a decent idea of what team Berg wants to put out anyway:

Robinson

Henley Dann Hanley Olsson

Pedersen Murphy Etuhu Olsson

Rochina

Rhodes

That would be my guess if Givet is out. Not sure about the right wing, could easily be CKR/Formica/Rosado.

[Clitherover]

I get a good feeling about this game, I know they will be no pushovers but I think we'll win 3-1. Rhodes to get a brace and someone totally unexpected to get the third (Henley?).

I'm hoping the atmosphere is going to be electric and to coin a throwaway football cliche, the fans will be our twelth man.

Haven't been this excited about going onto Ewood since the Hughes era, roll on Saturday!

[forumquizmaster]

I've got a feeling we'll hammer someone soon, let's hope its Brum, a club I have never liked. 5-1 to the Rovers, Rhodes 3, Murphy and a Rochina screamer.

[G Somerset Rover]

I do love the idea that some people think the opposition will alter their prepartion for the game based on a post on a messageboard.

I think we're getting a decent idea of what team Berg wants to put out anyway:

Robinson

Henley Dann Hanley Olsson

Pedersen Murphy Etuhu Olsson

Rochina

Rhodes

That would be my guess if Givet is out. Not sure about the right wing, could easily be CKR/Formica/Rosado.

Surely Simon desrves a crack on the right wing? Everybody else who has tried there has been woeful this season, and he's looked decent in his couple of cameo's to date.

[roversfan99]

I hope some of Givet, Dunn, Gomes and Nunes are available as soon as possible.

I would give a start to Simon on the right as he was bright the other day, did much more than Formica. If Givet or Nunes is back we can take out Markus Olsson.