‘Fans ready to descend on Birmingham City’

Positive vibes . That’s what my friends said they came away with from City’s last game against recently relegated Burnley, despite the 1-2 loss. I was not at the match as I was away having a lot of fun in a field in Northamptonshire. The 3G in said field was, however, lacking, so I had to rely on the said friends for updates as to how we were fairing. The first read “2-0 down. Two corners. Two chances. City 6 chances. All City first half.. Same 2nd”.

I am certain I couldn’t have summed up the game as succinctly, so hats off to the unnamed texter. We ended up losing 1-2 with a late consolation goal from the increasingly impressive Jonathan Kodjia. In summary, it sounds like we more than held our own against a team full of Premier League experience, and on balance should have probably come off winners.

As predicted, Andre Grey got a pretty unsavoury welcome. So unsavoury it lead to Mr Dyche commenting on it. I ponder as to whether he has some negative sentiments towards Bristol City fans after his rather unsuccessful playing days here. Anyway, such incidences just add to the soap opera of modern day professional football.

Our transfer deadline day dealings appear to have had a calmness and professionalism about them that the previous three months had been lacking. Two six-foot plus central defenders were signed, Nathan Baker and Liam Moore. With Premier League experience and England under-21 pedigree, they will provide Cotterill with some more, and much needed, options at the back. The signings should also go some way in addressing a size problem that we seem to have encountered in this division.

Despite my dismal forays so far into any sort of tactical analysis, or, dare I say it, advice to the coaching staff at Ashton Gate, I am about to speculate/offer guidance to this end once more. Our new signings may, I predict, see us move away from our favoured, and up until this point exceedingly successful, 3-5-2 formation. As to what formation we will adopt it remains to be seen, but watch this space for our visit to the second City this weekend.

The game against Birmingham City provides us with the first real opportunity this season for a mass exodus away from the West country and an opportunity to descend upon a stadium in substantial numbers. We have sold out our ticket allocation for St Andrews, meaning 2,600 will be there.

It is a little bit of an unknown as to what sort of game to expect from our opponents on Saturday, who seem to have been consistently inconsistent for the last year or two. Let’s hope our attacking nature and positive spirit carries forward from the last game and we can pick up our second away victory of the season.