Birmingham 4 Town 1
Picture from HTAFC.com
Mark Harrison, Writer.
Twitter: @MarkHarrison15
Birmingham was on a poor run with a raft of injuries. Town were unbeaten in 5 and arriving on the back of their best performance of the season. Also, it was a midweek game and apparently, we’d not lost one of them since February. You know what’s coming!
Yep, we lost heavily, but all’s not lost, apparently, we won on XG!
I am a big believer in crediting the opposition where it is warranted. Birmingham’s strengths exposed our weaker areas on the night (some self-inflicted) The 4 forward players were given a strong platform by Bielik and Sunjic and they exposed the spaces available on the flanks, especially on our right side. Dembele, Stansfield, Myoshi and Bacuna rotated well and the speed and quick feet on show, particularly by Dembele, was too much for us to handle on the night.
Birmingham seems to be a club heading in the right direction once again following years of decline and stagnation. Although, watching on iFollow, with the empty stands and lack of atmosphere had me back to the Covid games. Depressing!
So why did we lose from a Town perspective?
Start as you mean to go on
Lee Nicholls will save that Dembele shot 99 times out of 100, but unfortunately for us it was that 1% of the time that prevailed.
Even in the short lead up to that 3rd minute strike, the home side had started much the brighter and the tone for the night was set and Town have not been the best at reversing their fortunes.
The subsequent performance was as bright as the floodlights ie not very!
Round pegs for square holes?
We had one person unavailable from the team that started on Saturday in Jonathan Hogg. But were the changes in certain respects, totally necessary?
Darren Moore is still in the early stages of working out the strengths and weaknesses of his squad, that goes without saying. He has indicated in his early interviews that he was looking at bringing out new elements in his charges, identifying strengths and skillsets that had not been previously tapped into.
I hope that he might now feel that there were several players who looked uncomfortable in the new positions they were deployed in or at the very least they were playing in a position that does not get the best out of them currently. Perhaps in time, with more time spent on the training ground, this may change.
However, in the now, I don’t believe Josh Ruffels is at his best as a wingback. Tom Lees is not at his best as a left side centre back, especially when playing his first 90 minutes of the season. Poor Ben Jackson was given a torrid time by Dembele and I feel he is a better bet on the left side.
Yuta Nakayama had a great game at left wing back on Saturday but was crow barred into defensive midfield. This is surely not playing to his strengths? Although our lack of a deputy for Hogg is a big issue, especially with Kasumu being out with an injury. Midfield was lacking in the cohesion shown at the weekend. Wiles got an early knock which didn’t help matters here. But overall, it was disjointed in an area which was looking strong.
Up front is an issue, especially if Moore does not believe that Harratt or Hudlin is ready to start. Particularly so in a 3-game week when rotation is required ideally. So Sorba Thomas played up front and once again that is not his strongest suit.
So, for various reasons I think 5 players were played in positions that did not bring out their best. The team did not function effectively as a unit and there was a lack of rhythm with miss placed passes a common result.
What was in the tank?
The team put in a great effort against Ipswich and the short turn around was my biggest concern going into the game. The 5 substitutes rule does mitigate this somewhat, but with a thin squad, I felt that some players were running on less than their full tanks. Conversely Dembele was brought in to start for Birmingham, having been a sub on Saturday and he had a field day.
No Need to Panic just yet!
Rome wasn’t built in a day they say. I think a few buildings had been nicely refurbished in Moore’s first 2 games. Following game 3, a couple of those buildings collapsed!
I am hopeful that he will learn a lot from the Birmingham game. It is true that more can be learned in adversity and It’s all too easy to forget the good that has happened in the early days of his tenure (especially if you read Twitter straight after the game)
I will be very interested in seeing who starts v The Owls as that will tell me a lot about what lessons have been learned from Tuesday’s game.
Blue Nose Racist
Just when you thought the evening couldn’t get any worse, we hear the news that Juninho Bacuna had been racially abused by a home supporter. What can you say?
Matt’s ratings
In this section Matt will rate the players on a scale of 1-10 with 6 being used as an average to passable performance. TRIGGER WARNING! half marks will also be used if a player is between scores.
Lee Nicholls -4- “The Big Man is back!” I said after the game against Ipswich. It’s my fault that he was crap isn’t it, I jinxed it… He should have done better with the opener and he might kick himself for not coming for the 2nd as well. Hopefully we can forget about this one quickly, although the errors are starting to rack up this season now.
Matty Pearson -4.5- Struggled with his lack of pace against Siriki Dembele (good job we never had him on trial and decided to not sign him isn’t it…). Booked after 3 fouls and 60 minutes of chasing shadows.
Michal Helik -5- Probably the best of the backline and scored a consolation. Helik is now following on in that fine Town tradition of having a centre back as top scorer.
Tom Lees -4.5- Good to have him back in general, but a game to forget.
Ben Jackson -4.5- Played out of position and wasn’t brave enough in showing for the ball or in possession of it. Won’t sleep without seeing Dembele running past him for the next week.
Jack Rudoni -5- Quite rightly won the Blue & White player of the month for September, but this performance wasn’t of the same quality of last month. Not the worst player on the field by any stretch but neither did he meet the recent standards that he has set.
Yuta Nakayama -5- Now I’m not one to Yut shame, but this wasn’t his best game. I felt that he was let down in particular by the wide players who failed to show for the ball when he was in possession and it hugely inhibited the reason that he was probably asked to play midfield (whilst also carrying a knock) in the first place. I wouldn’t be so quick as to rule out his central midfield experiment just yet, but he needed a more settled team around him for it to work, yet all we had was chaos. Not a good mix.
Ben Wiles -4.5- Possibly his worst display in a Town shirt so far. Taken off at half time presumably because he was ineffective.
Josh Ruffels -4- Ruffels offered absolutely zero in either defence or attack and paid the price at half time.
Dr Burgzorg -5- A kind 5 at that. The Dr will no doubt deliver games like Saturday where he looks unplayable and games like this where he looks like he’s never played before. Such is the life of a maverick.
Sorba Thomas -5- Sorba played the 2nd striker role quite well a couple of times under Carlos Corberan but toiled against The Blues. It was a performance full of effort but just short of quality.
Brahima Diarra -4.5- He can’t play central midfield. Let’s not see this again, Darren.
Josh Koroma -5- Tried to inject some life into the game but fell into his old trap of predictably cutting in and shooting at every opportunity.
Jaheim Headley -5- Offered a touch more than Jackson and Ruffels at wing-back, but not enough to get Town back into the game.
Tom Edwards -4- Spent half an hour trying to kick Juninho Bacuna and missing. At least he was on hand to point out the perpertator of the vile abuse that the former Town player received at the hands of a home supporter.
Kian Harratt -5- Worked hard, tried to impact the game but nothing really came his way. The life of a striker eh?
