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Birmingham City 1 v 4 Middlesbrough
EFL League One
Saturday, 19th December 2020 Kick-off 15:00

Voting was locked for this match at midnight on Sunday 20th December but you may still add your mini match reports. Note that members and non-members alike were able to vote.


Referee0.0 
Match Rating0.0 


Your Birmingham City v Middlesbrough Match Reports

Juanforthemoney added 17:50 - Aug 24

I am afraid Murphy at present offers very little up front. We need someone who is going to drag people around and of course either assist in creating goals or getting 20 themselves. Thought both full back s for us were defensively very poor today. Hewitt looked like a youngster thrown in at the deep end! I think we may see more players having to come in as we have very little threat apart from McGoldrick
5


bringbacktheglory added 18:00 - Aug 24

Personally, I would keep Murphy for the Birmingham game, as he hasn't been awful so far this season bar today. However for the next home game, fitness provided I as would so many I assume would love to see the flair and pace of Taylor....
Our most creative outlet is our left back, this needs to change! I have nothing against Tabb, I don't want to see him dropped but it would just be nice to see the direct running Tunnicliffe provides despite not being a wide midfielder.
Our back 4 as a unit had an off day today and so I have no issues with them but forgetting the goal today, it would be nice to see Loach off his line every now and then!
-1


Martus added 18:03 - Aug 24

Loach didn't look confident today, defenders looked frustrated that he wasn't shouting orders or giving instructions, and was at fault for the second goal. The
defence looked pretty solid, especially Chambers, Smith was a little dodgy and didnt look confident on the ball today. The full backs did well on the attacking front but Hewitt looked a little dodgy when it came to defence.

We cant play Hyam and Skuse at the same time, they are both ball winning midfielders and Skuse is just better at it. We need a creative player alongside Skuse which is only Wordsworth at the moment. Hyam had a poor game today and so did Edwards, and when Anderson came on the dynamic changed and we looked more dangerous out wide. So Anderson in, Edwards out and Chambers as captain.

Murphy doesn't offer much up front, didn't win many (if any) headers, and just didn't look bothered throughout the game. Taylor would be a better parnter for McGouldrick, but i think McCarthy likes a target man. But McGouldrick really does look a good player, and took his goal very well.

So a solid performance, but just not enough creativity in the midfield.
9


ChayITFC added 18:26 - Aug 24

Loach should have done better with the second goal and looked a bit shaky when the ball was passed back to him. We needed more width and when we had width the cross wasn't good enough. Murphy and Mcgoldrick were not working together as a pair. Skuse looked solid again but was unable to have the ball at feet often. Hope Loachy will be back to his best against Birmingham next week.
2


tok2000 added 18:52 - Aug 24

we played brilliantly for 20 minutes then very poorly for the rest of the game. How some players can hold their place in the reserves let alone the first team is a mystery (murphy and hyam in particular) what's happened to wordsworth he could be the creative force we need to take us forward, we also need an out an out goal scorer there is one going reasonably cheap by todasys standards and that is billy sharp surely we cold fork out the 1.5m required it could be the real difference between mid table to the play-offs. on today's match we definitely didn't deserve a point let alone 3 but apart from an absolute howler from the linesman we would have had at least 1 point from where i was sitting in the co op stand right next to the incident there was absolutely no way it was offside the ball seemed to go backwards and the was a man basically on the line ruling out offside so will someone please explain how it was disallowed. other than that a very poor performance!!!!!!
2


Yallop added 19:07 - Aug 24

I must be missing something with Tabb. Lightweight, rarely passes forward. Narrow the midfield 4 away from home and bring Tunnliffe in for him.

McGoldrick looked class again. Would love to see a fit Taylor buzzing around him.
4


manualthetisfanclub added 19:20 - Aug 24

Not great today apart from 20 mins in first half.all to predictable again,chasing the game,lump it up top to murphy who ain't won a dime all game,brings a winger on who didn't touch the ball. Season of struggle of mid table mediocracy! Unless he has a final spurge before the window shuts,but I doubt that!
3


unstableblue added 21:29 - Aug 24

Well it was great to assemble a big group of blues today. Only 2 of us now going regularly. After today and the feedback from mates, who gave up on Town some years back, I am really questioning why I'm bothering. There is way too much emphasis post-match on how well we played for 20mins. And yes the triangles of passing was on display, and we had a goal disallowed, hit the side netting, hit the post and scored with a great finish from McGoldrick. With our defence comfortable.

But this was more Leeds settling into the game in my view. As soon as Leeds worked out the limitations of Skuse and Hyam's distribution, the poor positional sense of both Hewitt and Cresswell - and to just place a player on Murphy. We really fell apart.

Yes there was much fortune in how the ball fell for Leeds first goal. But we had starting to make errors between the centre backs and keeper. Giving away needless corners.

Following the goal Leeds just closed down space around McGoldrick, kept a straight back line. And we had no answers. The lack of movement and ideas for 70mins was nothing short of shocking. We passed better than of late, with long ball less obvious, but any thing in the air was being lost by Murphy. I cant remember him being so ineffective.

There's not much more to say really, Leeds wanted the game more, Tunnicliffe exposed so many players when introduced with his desire, stood out a mile. Nouble was as we know is pretty low quality and is unable to beat a man, so had little impact. Anderson - well I couldn't even work out where he was playing.

And of course we wasted a hatful of corners.

I think we really need to wake up and smell the coffee at the state of the club, we've let the owner squander money on poor managers with no vision and a modern system. 'Hard work ethos' - isn't enough anymore I'm afraid. And as much as I like Mick, he isnt the Lambert that Norwich stole to furnish their return to fortunes. We have limited attacking guile - and we are suffering from a crippling lack of movement off the ball and options.

Am sure I'll get shot down for this report. But we need to find a solution to this team's perpetual problem - an ability to sustain attacking football in waves for long periods - we had it for 4 mins today and we got a goal and pressure.

A better side than Leeds would have had a field day against Town today.

10


Ipswich24 added 22:20 - Aug 24

For the 1st twenty minutes today I thought we were fantastic moved the ball around with confidence, scored good goal and had chances for more. Then bang out of nowhere Leeds scored, yes was a bit fortunate how the ball fell to Varney but how we folded after that goal was very concerning. We reverted to hoof ball to Murphy who I'm afraid is just not good enough. We have no width or pace in the side. I don't understand why don't play 3-5-2 we have the players. We can't play 4-4-2 with no real wingers in side. We need pace and creativity and we lack a plan B. hoof to a poor Daryl Murphy is not good enough.
3


RomfordBlue added 00:12 - Aug 25

Mick was out managed today by McDermott ! In the first half we saw some flowing entertaining football. The Blues were unlucky not to be three up at half time - but then McDermott put markers on our most effective players like Scuse and we were neutralised. Once again the missing elements were exposed. Mid-field - Luke had a poor game and the right combination up front was missing. We need a Mariner type of player, Murphy and Mcgoldrick just will not work!
4


Marcus added 01:51 - Aug 25

It seems Loach is going through a phase of one error/game. Unfortunately as a goalkeeper there's very little margin for error (while a striker making one mistake a game wouldn't be a bad thing). I wonder how much is psychological?

The defence looked solid enough. I'll need to watch the replays of the goals but at the match there wasn't any specific feeling that any defenders had messed up.

Not so sure about the midfield, seemed to give the ball away too much while defensively sound. Nobody really put their foot on the ball. Perhaps it's time to rotate the squad a bit, especially Tabb/Edwards who didn't really add much width.

McGoldrick looked decent, especially in the first third but started to drift out of the game after that. Murphy looked rather mediocre. Again perhaps another forward could be given a chance ahead of him.
3


Hazz16 added 12:46 - Aug 25

We had a good first half but crumbled in second as Leeds scored two lucky deflected goals. Mike Dean had a quite poor game, with a goal which could have stood. We could've had up to two penalties with a handball on the line from Noel Hunt and another handball which I've seen penalties given for just inside the area. Leeds' skipper Austin had chopped Cresswell in half. Possibly two sendings off. Murphy had a poor game but when Tunnicliffe came on Ipswich had a bit more creativity
-1


Pilgrimblue added 20:51 - Aug 25

My first game this season and with expectations high i was very disappointed. MM can't play 4 mids with no prospects of any goals. Sadly Hyam has no creativity and Edwards looks over the hill. I would never have signed Murphy (too slow and poor scoring record) we should have gone for Barnett who's back scoring for Peterborough or someone similar (young and quick). As we weren't worrying Leeds much the pressure was bound to stretch our defense so I'd keep the faith. Shame we didn't get Stearman though! Didn't rate Nouble either!!
-1


pw100470 added 22:16 - Aug 25

We need a creative mid. man.... Jamie O Hara go get him mick !!!! AND BILLY SHARP ON LOAN
1


tractordownsouth added 10:19 - Aug 26

Leeds were narrow and Creswell exposed them in the first half but McDermott noticed this and set them out with more width and they ultimately won because of this and Murphy's inability to win headers despite being the biggest player on the pitch
0






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