[Lord Snooty]

Birmingham City v Huddersfield Town
The Sky Bet Championship
Wednesday October 28th - 19:45 ko
at St. Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium

Huddersfield Town travel to play Birmingham City on Wednesday evening at the Trillion Trophy Stadium for a showdown of Spanish head coaches as Carlos Corberán takes on Aitor Karanka.

Carlos will have at least one change to his starting XI following the red card received by Naby Sarr on Saturday as Preston broke away in search of a third goal. It should only be a one match ban, so hopefully he'll be back for the trip to Millwall at the weekend. Naby's absence could mean another start for Romoney Crichlow, who earned himself the Man of the Match award last time he played, against Nottingham Forest live on Sky Sports. With Richard Stearman only one more yellow card away from a ban and Christopher Schindler recently returned from injury, there should be another first team squad call up for 18 year old Mustapha Olagunju, who looked awesome in pre season and one I'm excited about seeing in the first team soon. Danny Ward was described as "not far off" at the weekend and Álex Vallejo should be available, either for this or Millwall.

As for Birmingham, they won their first match of the season, 1-0 at home to Brentford, but Saturday's goal less draw at QPR was their 6th league game without a win. They have had four draws to add to that opening day victory, giving them 7 points, three behind us. Ex Town player, Lukas Jutkiewicz was back to play the last 20 minutes at Loftus Road, after he had missed the previous two matches due to being Covid positive. No doubt he will be back in the starting line up for this one to give our defenders something to think about. He always seems to score against us, but was pretty anonymous last season when we beat them 3-0 in July.




A brief history of Birmingham City: formed in 1875 as Small Heath Alliance, they dropped the Alliance in 1888 and became Birmingham in 1905 when they moved into St Andrews. They didn't become known as Birmingham City until 1943. As Small Heath they were founder members of the new Football League Division Two in 1892, winning it as champions. However, they failed to gain promotion to the first division. In those days the teams at the top and bottom had to play a Test Match to decide promotion or relegation, similar to today's Play Offs, but not quite the same. Anyway, they lost on aggregate to Newton Heath, who of course went on to be known as Manchester United. They did win promotion though in the next season, after finishing second, they beat Darwen in the test match 3-1 at Stoke's Victoria Ground. They stayed up until 1908, but then stayed in the 2nd division until after the war when they won the title again in 1920/21.

During this period, two players set out long standing records for the club. Frank Womack racked up their record number of appearances, turning out 515 times between 1908 and 1928. And Joe Bradford became the club's all time leading goalscorer, scoring 267 goals in 445 games, being top scorer each season between 1921 and 1933. They made it to their first FA Cup Final in 1931 when the team, skippered by ex Town full back Ned Barkas, lost 1-2 to West Bromwich Albion, who were a 2nd division team then, at Wembley. They stayed in the first division right up until 1939 when they got relegated just before the next war kicked off.

During the war they finally became known as Birmingham City and then won the 2nd division title for a third time in 1947/48. That didn't last though and they were back down again in 1950, only for them to go on and take their 4th and to date final 2nd division champions title. So back in the first division, they achieved their highest ever league finish in the 1955/56 season when they came 6th, thus qualifying them for a place in Europe in the first ever Inter Cities Fairs Cup (which has now morphed into the Europa League). They also made it to the FA Cup Final again in this season, their second and to date final one. They still haven't won it, losing again. This time it was Manchester City who won it 3-1, with Welsh international Noel Kinsey equalising Man City's early opener. The match is remembered though for City's keeper Bert Trautmann playing on for the last 17 minutes with a broken neck.

So the next season, Birmingham City became one of the first English clubs to play in the European tournaments. And they did alright! It was a long strung out affair, lasting over three seasons. They were drawn into a group with Inter Milan and Zagreb, which they topped by staying unbeaten. They beat Zagreb twice and drew in Milan. The decider of the group came down to the final match of the group at St Andrews against Inter. Two gaols from Alex Govan their Scottish outside left gave them a 2-1 win. He was asked in an interview about his favourite song, which he replied was Keep Right On To The End Of The Road, which has since become the fans' anthem. That win meant that they went through to the semi finals, which they drew 4-4 on aggregate with Barcelona. However, they lost the replay and the European dream was over.

Only over temporarily though, as they qualified for the next competition to be played between 1958 and 1960. They went one better this time. After disposing of Cologne, Zagreb and then Union Saint-Gilloise of Belgium in the semis, they faced up to Barcelona in the Final over two legs, thus becoming the first English club to reach a European Final. After a goalless first leg in Birmingham, they got pumped 4-1 with Harry Hooper scoring a late consolation. Ex Town player Pat Beasley was manager of Birmingham at the time of the final. He had been joint manager with Arthur Turner, who had been in charge of these recent triumphs, but resigned following a disagreement with the board. Beasley himself resigned after the Final.

Gil Merrick had played in goal for the Bluenoses since 1939 and now moved into the manager's hot seat when Beasley resigned. He had played 485 league games and now was to lead them in the next competition of 1960/61. They made it all the way to the Final again, beating Hungary's Újpesti Dósza, Kjøbenhavns Boldklub of Denmark and then beating Inter Milan again in the semis. It would be Roma in the Final this time and it went by in a similar fashion to the previous one. They drew at St Andrews, this time 2-2 with goals coming from Mike Hellawell, who would later play for Town, and Bryan Orritt, coming back from being 0-2 down to force the draw. No good though as they lost the 2nd leg 2-0 after Brian Farmer put through his own net and then Paolo Pestrin tying up the tie in the last minute.

Gil Merrick

The Fairs Cup was growing and England had more teams in in the next one, with Nottingham Forest and Sheffield Wednesday joining them in the 1961/62 competition. It wasn't to be. Birmingham got knocked out early doors by Espanyol. But they were on a roll and in 1963 they won their first major trophy when they lifted the League Cup by beating local rivals Aston Villa. The Finals were still played over two legs and it was the Blues who won it in the first leg, winning 3-1 with goals from Ken Leek (2) and Jimmy Bloomfield. The 2nd leg finished 0-0 and Birmingham City had it's first major trophy. But this successful period came to an abrupt end in 1965 when they got relegated again.

They came back up again in 1972, replacing us in the first division, as runners up to Norwich. Back down again in 1979 and straight back up again in the following season, finishing 3rd and beating Chelsea on goal difference for that final automatic spot. Another yoyo in the mid 80s, winning promotion back up on the day that Leeds fans rioted at St Andrews, causing the death of a young boy when a wall collapsed on him. Dirty Leeds scum! Anyway, this being on the same day as the Bradford fire tragedy, formed part of the inquiry into the safety at sports grounds. The boy's death under a crumbling wall was something of a symbol of Birmingham's fortunes off the pitch, despite their promotion. They came straight back down and almost went down to the 3rd division.

After a couple of close misses, they did go down to the 3rd for the first time in their history in 1989. But down there, they won another trophy. It was the Leyland DAF Cup (FL Trophy) and they beat Tranmere Rovers 3-2 at Wembley in 1991. They went back up in 1992, only to come back down again in 1994. They did go straight back up as Third Division champions, with Barry Fry as manager, clinching the title at the McAlpine Stadium on the last day of the season. They did the double that season, winning the Trophy again, now being called the Auto Windscreens Shields Trophy. They beat Carlisle Utd in the Final 1-0 in extra time. Paul Tait scored the winner on the Golden Goal rule, meaning that that was their last kick in this competition as they haven't since been back down in the third tier.

Trevor Francis had been sold to Nottingham Forest in 1979 to become the first million pound transfer in English football and he returned to Birmingham to manage the Bluenoses in 1996. He brought in some experienced players, including Steve Bruce from Manchester Utd and almost made the Play Offs. Francis led the team to the Millennium Stadium in the 2001 League Cup Final. Bruce had moved on to other things! They lost though on penalties to Liverpool after Darren Purse had equalised in the last minute of normal time from the spot.

Francis left early in the next season to be replaced by Bruce who had left his job at Huddersfield Town the previous year and managed Wigan and Crystal Palace for short stints. He managed to do for them what he couldn't for us, get them into the Play Offs and win a place in the Premier League. They did it by beating Norwich City on penalties. It was played in Cardiff and was 0-0 at full time. Iwan Roberts put the Canaries ahead in extra time, but Geoff Horsfield equalised to take it to pens. And it was ex Town keeper Nico Vaesen who was the hero, saving two of the Norwich penalties.

They had a top half finish in the Premier League, but were relegated in the next season. Only to bounce straight back up again, finishing as runners up to Sunderland. Bruce left early in the next season, to be replaced by Alex McLeish, who got them relegated...….only to bounce back up again (we're getting a pattern here!), this time as runners up to Wolves. They managed to stay up, finishing in 9th, their highest finish for over 50 years.

But the pattern continued and they went down again in 2010/11. However, they did mange to win the League Cup, their second major trophy triumph. They beat Arsenal 2-1 at Wembley with goals from Nikola Žigić and Obafemi Martins. This earned them a place in Europe for the first time since 1961. They didn't get past the group stage though, finishing behind Club Brugge and S.C. Braga. Chris Hughton was by now in charge and when he left, his job went to ex Town manager Lee Clark.

He had them down in the relegation area and in his first season they only just survived on the last day of the season when in injury time a Paul Caddis header earned them a draw at Bolton, sending the fans wild and Clark running down the touchline in an uncontrollable show of relief. And so not much has happened since, apart from living from one crisis to the next, like having nine points deducted, new owners Trillion Trophy Asia sacking Gary Rowett in favour of Gianfranco Zola and last season under Pep Clotet going 14 games without a win during the Covid games and only avoiding relegation on the last day to carry on a nine season stint in the Championship.

Head to Head



Town lead the head to head with 42 wins to City's 38, with 33 draws. That's 113 meetings and I reckon that must be our most played opponent.

Well the last two visits to St Andrews have resulted in us coming away with handsome victories. Last season, during lockdown, the Blues were in meltdown and we didn't help them by winning 3-0 on the first of July. Goals that Wednesday teatime came from Karlan Grant from the penalty spot, Frazier Campbell, about a minute after Grant had missed another penalty, and then Elias Kachunga wrapping up the three points.

A couple of seasons earlier, when we were a Premier League team, we met in the FA Cup. A disappointing draw at the JSS, with Lukas Jutkiewicz equalising a Steve Mounie goal, sent the teams back to the Midlands for a 4th round replay. It ended 1-1 after 90 minutes, Che Adams had put them ahead only for Marc Roberts to put through his own goal to take us to extra time. But then goals from Mounie, Rajiv van La Parra and Tom Ince gave us the victory.

But now let's go back in time, back to the beginning of our Football League life and the 1910/11 season. FL fixture number 14 for the Town was away at Birmingham. Unfortunately we lost 1-2 with James Howie scoring for us. But the return fixture at Leeds Road, the penultimate match of the season, saw us wallop them 7-1. A hat trick from James Macauley (the club's first FL hat trick), two from George Blackburn, Howie got another one and then Joe Jee wrapped it up. But this match was one of the five matches that Leigh Richmond Roose played in goal for the Town. If you're unfamiliar with this chap, in short, he was a bit of an eccentric. An Edwardian playboy, a medical student, a Welsh international and eventually an army medic who sadly got killed at the Somme in 1916. He played for Stoke, Everton, Sunderland, Celtic, Villa and Port Vale as well as us and you can read more of him in the upcoming Stoke match thread.

Leigh Richmond "Dick" Roose

Another interesting Town goalkeeper played in the match against Birmingham in the next season, when we won 3-2 at home with James Richardson scoring a hat trick. The keeper was Ronald Brebner. He was an amateur, being a qualified dental surgeon for his real job and turned out 23 times for us in 1911/12, his only season for us. He played at St Andrews in April as Birmingham got a 1-0 win against us and finished his Town career the following week at Burnley. A couple of months later though, he had himself an Olympic Gold medal, playing for GB at the Stockholm games. He played for GB as they beat Denmark 4-2 in the Final. And tragically, two tears later he died in November 1914. Not the war though. He sustained a head injury playing for Leicester Fosse at Lincoln which ended his playing career and contributed significantly to his early death ten months later.

The 7-1 win against Birmingham in 1911 was our record league victory, but a couple of years later we went one better with a 7-0 win. Who against? Well it was Birmingham again. "Can we play you every week?" It was at Leeds Road again with goals this time from Bert Smith, Fred Fayers, a William Ball own goal, Macauley, who got a hat trick in the previous thrashing and in this one it was Thomas Elliott who netted thrice. We did the double over them, winning 4-1 down there, but lost 0-1 at St Andrews in the FA Cup. Just to show how times change and the importance of the FA Cup back then, there were just four weeks between the two away matches, but there were 45,000 spectators at the cup match and only 7,000 for the league match.

That FA Cup match was the first of seven times these two clubs have been drawn to play each other. One of them, in 1972 was the last time we reached the quarter finals, the only time we have got that far since 1955. We lost, obviously, it was a 1-3 defeat with Trevor Cherry scoring ours in front of another bumper crowd at St Andrews of 52,500. But we only had to wait 36 years for our revenge when in 2008, a Luke Beckett goal and a late winner from Chris Brandon gave us a 2-1 win over Premier League Birmingham City, when we were in the third tier (whatever it was called then). A great game but on a sad personal note, it was the last match my dad went to. After he dragged me along to matches in the 60s, I dragged him along when he was showing signs of dementia. It helped for a while and he bucked up on every occasion I took him, but suddenly announced after this one that he didn't want to go anymore. Ah well, we saw some classics together.

One of those he took me to was in March 1970 as we were hurtling rapidly towards the 2nd division title. It was at Leeds Road and we beat the Blues 2-0 with a couple of Jimmy Lawson goals. We never got to St Andrews and I still haven't been. It's strange that I've been to around a hundred grounds watching Town and it's one of the club's most visited places, but I've never been. Odd that. Don't suppose I'll get there this season either.

So what's going on down at the Trillion Trophy Stadium? Managed nowadays by Aitor Karanka, the former assistant to José Mourinho at Real Madrid. Born in 1973 in Vitoria-Gasteiz in the province of Álava in northern Spain, he started out his football life with his home town club Deportivo Alavés before moving to neighbouring club Athletic Bilbao. He had three seasons playing with them and then when head coach Jupp Heynckes went to Real Madrid, Karanka went with him.

He played centre back in that star studded team and won the Champions League with them in the year 2000 when they beat Valencia 3-0, but he had missed the entire previous season due to a serious heart condition. He returned to Bilbao in 2003, helping them qualify for the UEFA Cup and then wrapped up his playing career with a year in America playing for Colorado Rapids in the MLS. On the international front, he had just the one cap for Spain, but represented his country in the 1996 Olympics.

As a coach, he started out with the national team's u16 squad before he got the job as assistant to Mourinho. Together they won La Liga in 2012. When José got replaced by Carlo Ancelotti after three years, Karanka left as well and was soon after appointed as head coach at Championship club Middlesbrough in the frozen north-east of England. He had four seasons there, reaching the Play Off Final in 2015, but getting beaten by Norwich. The following season they went up automatically to the Premier League, finishing as runners up to Burnley.

They came straight back down again, as we went up to the Premier League, but Karanka had been sacked by the time relegation was confirmed. He joined Nottingham Forest in January 2018, but was sacked just over a year later and then after 18 months unemployed he became head coach at St Andrews in July this year.

Who's in their squad then? Two familiar names for Town fans. One a big lump o' lard who seems to enjoy scoring against us and one who earned pots of cash for the Town Foundation by dyeing his beard blue. I talk of course about Lukas Jutkiewicz and Adam Clayton. Lukas has been at Brum since 2016, initially on loan from Burnley, which was then made permanent for the quite reasonable price of a million quid. Reasonable, when you consider the amounts of money we've doshed out for some who have shown nothing like the ability that this lad has. Not that he showed much of it when he came to us. He came to us in 2008 (blimey, was it really that long ago?) on loan from Everton and had a great debut, playing up front against the Champions of Europe at the Galpharm, the one when we beat them 1-0 with a Nathan Clarke goal. But his other 6 games for us were frankly, diabolical. We lost at Crewe, drew at Stockport, drew at home to Colchester, lost at home to Millwall, drew at MK Dons and then Lee Clark substituted him after only 31 minutes in a match against Cheltenham Town, when we were 0-2 behind, young Lukas had had enough, threw his tracky top at him and was never seen in a Town shirt again.

Clayton, in contrast, was a bit of a legend and our Player of the Season in 2014. He signed for us in 2012, signed by Simon Grayson, who had previously had him at Leeds. He came to us from Leeds, unwanted by new manager Neil Warnock, despite him turning out 46 times for the BellEnders in the previous season. Clayts certainly let Colin know his feelings when he scored for us against the Skip Dwellers at the JSS, running all the way to the halfway line and then doing a knee slide right in front of the away team's dug out. He had two seasons with us, but after winning the Hargreaves Memorial and raising the charity money, he buggered off to Middlesbrough to play for Aitor Karanka. He got sent off at Norwich last week but should be available for this match.

Andrés Prieto has the number one shirt, but the man between the sticks is Neil Etheridge, who signed in the summer from Cardiff, having lost his place there to Alex Smithies.

In defence they have ex Brentford Frenchman Maxime Colin, ex Brentford centre back Harlee Dean, George Friend, who had 8 years at the Boro and ex Union Berlin left back Kristian Pedersen. Marc Roberts is another defender. He's a Barnsley lad who was a team mate of Oggy's hairdresser friend Matt Glennon at Halifax Town.

Croatian Ivan Šunjić is a defensive midfielder. Iván Sánchez is a Spaniard who arrived in the summer. Jon Toral is another Spanish lad and he was at Hull City last season. And yet another Spaniard, who made his debut from the bench after Clayton had been sent off at Norwich is Mikel San José. He's 31 and has played for the national team. He came to Birmingham after ten years at Athletic Bilbao, making almost 400 appearances.

Dan Crowley is another midfielder and he started out with Arsenal's Academy and spent three seasons away in the Netherlands at various clubs before signing for Birmingham last season. Gary Gardner played in the Prem with Villa, but had six loans out at Championship clubs before signing a permanent deal with the Blues. Aussie Riley McGree signed in October for Charlotte FC in the MLS from Adelaide and was sent out on loan for the season to Birmingham. Bit of a long way round.

Caolan Boyd-Munce is a 20 year old midfielder from Belfast who has been on the bench recently. As has defender Josh Dacres-Cogley, who spent last season on loan at Crawley Town. Dutchman Maikel Kieftenbeld is back in the squad as well, having been out for most of last season with an anterior cruciate ligament injury, picked up playing against dirty Leeds. He's been at the club for 5 years and had his contract extended for a year when he was laid up for nine months.

Up top there's the boy Lukas as well as Scott Hogan, another ex Halifax Town player as well as Brentford player. He scored enough goals for them to persuade Aston Villa to part with mega millions for him. It didn't quite work out for him there and when Villa went back to Brentford for another striker in the summer, Hogan was shuffled across the city to St Andrews. Jérémie Bela scored the opening goal of the season in a 1-0 win over Brentford. He's French, but plays for Angola.


Saturday's line up away at QPR:

Etheridge
Colin
Roberts
Dean
Friend
Pedersen
Gardner
San José
Sunjic
Leko
Hogan

Subs:
Prieto
Kieftenbeld
Jutkiewicz
Bela
Sánchez
Dacres-Cogley
Boyd-Munce


Club connections: We'll start with the main man, Frank Worthington. A man of many clubs. Seems to get a mention in every match thread I do.   We were obviously his first club and after Leicester, Bolton and Philadelphia Fury, he turned up at Birmingham City in division 2 in 1979. He stayed there for three seasons and helped them get promoted in his first. Then he top scored for the club, banging home 16 times back in the first division as they managed a mid table finish. Halfway through the next one though, he was on his travels again, this time to Sunderland.

Goalkeeper Neil Freeman was a team mate of Frank's at St Andrews but lost his place to Jeff Wealands and ended up away on loan at Walsall. In the following season, Town lost a disastrous FA Cup match at home to Shrewsbury Town. It wasn't just the embarrassing result, it was the fact that we lost Andy Rankin for the rest of the season through injury. But then Freeman arrived from Birmingham on loan to the end of the season and took part in classic matches like the 1-0 win at home to Barnsley and a 5-0 win against Exeter as we finished 4th in division 3, just missing promotion.

Steve Bruce, like Frank, seems to have been at every club we ever play. His son Alex Bruce has played for both. He went to Birmingham when his dad was manager in 2005 on a free transfer from Blackburn. he went on loan to Sheffield Wednesday and got sent off against us. Then in December 2011 he came on loan to us when he was a Leeds player. He only played three times but one of them was the classic 4-4 draw at Hillsborough.

In goal for us at Hillsborough was Ian Bennett. Previously he had been at Birmingham for 12 seasons, playing over 350 games for them. He was there when they did the lower league's double of 3rd division title and FL Trophy in 1995 and in 2001 when they made it to the League Cup Final in which they got beaten by Liverpool in a penalty shoot out. Talking of which, he was in goal for the 2011 Play Off semi final against Bournemouth and saved a couple in the shoot out.

Ten years before that, Bennett had lost his place in the Birmingham goal when Nico Vaesen joined them from us. He bookended his Town and Birmingham careers by getting sent off. His debut for us was away at Bury when he ran out of his area and stopped their forward in his tracks illegally and had to walk. No sub keepers then so Marcus Browning had to go in. We lost 0-1. Apart from that though, he was a bloody brilliant keeper, one of the best I can remember and won Player of the Season in his first season.
For the Bluenoses, he was the penalty saving hero in the 2002 Play Off Final against Norwich, saving the penalty taken by Philip Mulryne to leave Darren Carter the chance to score the winner. Nico was on Birmingham City's books for 5 years, but didn't make half as many appearances as he did in the 3 years he had with us. That's because of a serious knee injury that kept him out long term and when he finally got fit, he had been ousted by Maik Taylor. So he went out on loan and during one of those loan spells, with Crystal Palace, he won the Play Offs again. That was the 2004 Final when Palace beat West Ham 1-0.
So back at St Andrews in 2006, he finally got back in the team but ended his City days by getting sent off in a 1-4 defeat away at Manchester City.

Barry Horne was a team mate of Nico's at Town and signed by Peter Jackson was one of the main players in the Great Escape. He played 64 times for us and came to us from Birmingham, for who he played 33 times. Before that he was at Everton, scoring a 40 yard thunderbolt that kept them in the Premier League and winning an FA Cup winners medal in 1995 when they beat Manchester Utd 1-0.

Another one from the first Jacko era was Paul Barnes. He only scored a couple for us but his first was a brilliant volley from the edge of the area to put us one up in a match we eventually won 2-1 away at Stoke City as we clawed our way clear in that escape tunnel. Earlier in his career though he had made a name for himself in division 4 with York City, helping them to promotion, but also scoring twice in a miraculous 3-0 win in the League Cup at Old Trafford against Man Utd. His fame from this earned him a move to Birmingham, but he didn't stay long. Long enough to score against us though. Oh yes, and he scored for York against us as well. His son is Harvey Barnes, who plays in the Premier League for Leicester City. He was born in 1997, meaning he was still in nappies when dad was banging 'em in for us. Banging 'em in? His only other goal for us was in a 2-1 win at home to Bradford City.

As previously mentioned, Pat Beasley was manager of Birmingham City when they were playing in Europe. He took them to the Final of the Inter Cities Fairs Cup in 1960, which they lost to Barcelona. Many years before that though, he played for Arsenal and won the title twice with them in the 1930s. He was signed when he was 17 by Herbert Chapman. A few years later, he came to us and played in the 1938 FA Cup Final, the one we lost to Preston. But then the war started and his Town career ended. He signed for Fulham when hostilities ceased.

Also mentioned earlier, Mike Hellewell scored for Birmingham in the Final of the Fairs Cup. Not the one when Beasley was in charge. It was the following season when they got beaten in the Final by Roma. He did win a medal with them though, the 1963 League Cup when they beat Villa over 2 legs. After ten seasons at St Andrews, he came to Leeds Road and was in the side when I first started going.

And also mentioned previously, Ned Barkas was captain of Birmingham when they played in the 1931 FA Cup Final. He played over 250 times for them, having signed from us in 1928. With us, he won two Football League titles and an FA Cup runners up medal.

Dave Mangnall, who I wrote more about here, holds many records for Town. He holds the goals to games ratio record scoring 73 goals in 90 matches, the record for scoring in consecutive matches (11), the most goals in a season (42) and he is one of only three players to score 5 goals in a match for us. Alf Lythgoe and Jordan Rhodes being the others. When he left us he went to Birmingham and scored 14 goals in 37 appearances for them. His 73 goals for us leaves him 10th in our all time goal scorers list.

Ernie Islip played for Town either side of the First World War and helped us win promotion in 1920. He also played in our first FA Cup Final in the same year against Villa and two years later when we won it against Preston. He scored 52 goals for us, putting him in 21st= place in our all time goal scoring list, level with Colin Dobson. He moved to Birmingham in 1923 and was their leading scorer in his first full season there.

When Islip played at Leeds Road, Leslie Knighton was assistant manager to Dick Pudan for the first two seasons of our Football League life. He stayed on when Pudan left and had one game as caretaker manager, a 4-0 home victory against Blackpool. He left Town in 1919 to go manage Arsenal, where he had many a disagreement with the Chairman in his six years there. Unfortunately for us, when they sacked him, they came back up to Huddersfield and poached Herbert Chapman. So he got a job at Bournemouth and then in 1928 got the job of manager at Birmingham. He got the Blues to Wembley for the 1931 FA Cup Final, which they lost to West Brom. He then went and manged Chelsea before the war and Shrewsbury after.

Two players in Birmingham's current squad are Adam Clayton and Lukas Jutkiewicz. Lee Clark managed both clubs and signed Lee Novak for both.

Others who have played for both include; Simon Charlton, Dennis Clarke, David Edgar, Chris Holland, Emyr Huws, Steve Jenkins, Dennis Jennings, Damien Johnson, Chris Marsden, Seymour Morris, Paul Moulden, Peter Ndlovu, Phil Robinson, Phil Summerill, James Vaughan and Peter Withe.  



Birmingham in popular culture: All you need to know is in this promotional video from the seventies presented by Telly Savalas. Enjoy!  



There are a few bands from there who have done alright for themselves. One of them, the Electric Light Orchestra, have the theme tune of Birmingham City. Mr Blue Sky.



Another Birmingham band, but with no particular connection to the football club is Black Sabbath. Here's one of their early popular ditties.



And of course, we are contractually obliged to mention in any article about Birmingham City that Jasper Carrott was a director of the club. He used to do a particularly funny skit about his trip to Old Trafford in the 70s, a place that didn't serve Bovril!  

We've had that one before and also his Funky Moped, so here instead is the Magic Roundabout. Just watch it going round, it's magic!  





'ow to get theere an' wheere to sup: The Grand Union Canal is the closest one to the ground, or the Birmingham & Warwick Junction Canal. If you choose to moor up at the Gas Street Basin, the walk is about 40 minutes to the Trillion Trophy Stadium.

So take the Huddersfield Narrow to Ashton, then onto the Peak Forest until Marple. Turn off onto the Macclesfield Canal, all the way to the Trent & Mersey. Carry on until you reach the junction with the Coventry Canal near Fradley. Take the Coventry as far as Fazeley, where you join the Birmingham & Fazeley Canal. Take the B&FC and just before you get to the Spaghetti Junction, turn off onto the Birmingham & Warwick and you're almost there. Bridge 101 is the St Andrews Road Bridge. Or go a bit further onto the Grand Union, moor up and walk along Coventry Road to the ground.

Alternatively, carry on on the Birmingham & Fazeley, then turn left onto the Worcester & Birmingham to the Gas Street Basin. There's loads of pubs, cafes and restaurants around here. The Gas Street Social, Tap and Spile, 52 Gas Street and Canalside Bar would be good places to pull into and watch the match on your laptop. If they're still open. There is a pandemic going on, you know!  

Other Championship matches this week:

Tuesday:
Barnsley v Queens Park Rangers
Blackburn Rovers v Reading
Brentford v Norwich City
Middlesbrough v Coventry City
Swansea City v Stoke City
Wycombe Wanderers v Watford

Wednesday:
AFC Bournemouth v Bristol City
Derby County v Cardiff City
Luton Town v Nottingham Forest
Preston North End v Millwall
Rotherham United v Sheffield Wednesday


Recent form - last 6 matches:

Town 1-2 Preston
Town 1-0 Derby
Swansea 1-2 Town
Rotherham 1-1 Town
Town 1-0 Forest
Brentford 3-0 Town

QPR 0-0 Birmingham
Norwich 1-0 Birmingham
Birmingham 0-1 Sheff Weds
Stoke 1-1 Birmingham
Birmingham 1-1 Rotherham
Swansea 0-0 Birmingham

Town are 14th with 10 points, Birmingham are in 17th with 7.

Leading scorers:
Town:
Frazier Campbell (2)
Harry Toffolo (1)
Josh Koroma (1)
Juninho Bacuna (1)

City:
Jérémie Bela (2)
Harlee Dean (1)


October the 28th down the ages: How did we get on in previous matches played on this date? Answer, not very well!

1911: Gainsborough Trinity (h) Div 2, drew 2-2 (James Richardson, James Macauley)
1916: Grimsby Town (a) Wartime League, lost 1-2 (Jim Baker)
1922: Oldham Athletic (h) Div 1, WON 3-0 (Frank Mann, Joe Walter, Ernie Islip)
1933: West Bromwich Albion (h) Div 1 WON 3-1 (Charlie Luke 2, George McLean)
1939: Middlesbrough (a) Wartime League North-East, drew 2-2 (Bobby Barclay 2)
1944: Bradford Park Avenue (h) Wartime League North, drew 1-1 (Harry Baird)
1950: Bolton Wanderers (h) Div 1, lost 0-4
1961: Stoke City (a) Div 2, lost 0-3
1963: Plymouth Argyle (n) League Cup, WON 2-1 (Les Massie, Kevin McHale)
1967: Preston North End (h) Div 2, drew 1-1 (Colin Dobson)
1972: Orient (h) Div 2, drew 1-1 (Alan Gowling pen)
1978: Bradford City (a) Div 4, drew 1-1 (Peter Fletcher)
1989: Shrewsbury Town (h) Div 3, drew 1-1 (Junior Bent)
1995: Southend United (a) Div 2, drew 0-0
1997: Middlesbrough (a) Div One (2nd tier), lost 0-3
2000: Blackburn Rovers (a) Div One (2nd tier), lost 0-1
2003: Reading (a) League Cup, lost 0-1
2006: Brighton (h) League One (2nd tier), lost 0-3
2008: Yeovil Town (h) League One (2nd tier), drew 0-0
2017: Liverpool (a) Premier League, lost 0-3


We haven't won on this date since 1963. We haven't won a league game on this date since 1933. We haven't even scored a goal since 1989!

Jim Baker who scored against Grimsby in 1916, was one of the players who shipped out when Leeds tried to steal our club. Obviously they failed in that dastardly deed but succeeded in luring Baker away. He became the first captain of the newly formed Leeds United.

Joe Walter who scored in the 1922 match against Oldham was the oldest Town player alive when we played the final match at Leeds Road and was the guest of honour. He won a League Champions medal with us in 1924, but had left by the time we won the other two.

The defeat at Stoke in 1961 was famous for seeing the return of Stanley Matthews. He was probably the most famous player on the planet and was still playing at the age of 46 when he played against us. There were over 35,000 there to see him, their biggest crowd of the season.

A much smaller crowd turned up for the League Cup match against Plymouth in 1963. It was a 2nd round 2nd replay (remember them?). After we had drawn 2-2 down there and 3-3 up here, we played the 2nd replay on neutral territory. They chose somewhere half way, Villa Park, which was still a bit of a trek for both sets of supporters and only 3,000 bothered to turn up. We played them later on that season in the FA Cup and twice in the league, meaning we played them six times in one season. I think that's a record. And for the record, we won three and drew three.

The goal at Valley Parade for Peter Fletcher in 1978 was his first for us. He would go on to score 45 and form a deadly partnership with Ian Robins that would see us promoted as 4th division champions.


Quiz time:

1. Who beat Birmingham City in the 1960 Fairs Cup Final?
   
2. Which ex Town player was their manager at the time?
   
3. Who did Birmingham City beat in the final to win the 1963 League Cup?
   
4. Which club did Aitor Karanka manage between managing Middlesbrough and Birmingham?
   
5. Who played in goal for Birmingham in the 2002 Play Off Final?
   
6. Who was Birmingham's captain in the 1931 FA Cup Final?
   
7. How many times have Birmingham City won the League Cup?
   
8. Which Town goalkeeper won a gold medal at the 1912 Olympics?
   
9. Who was Birmingham's leading scorer in 1980/81?
   
10. Who scored Town's first hat trick in the Football League?
    

[theo_luddite]

Well, I've got me bottle of wine ready for this one Snoots

As it's the Venice of the North I've clocked your directions and already got the cork out.

I'd prefer a drink from that than the watter from any of the canals you've mentioned on the way across t'Pennines and then heading south somewhere close to t'M6, but taking the journey twice as far and at 4mph to get there. You don't need to walk for 40 minutes from Brum either. They have rattlers that leave Moor Street or Snow Hill for the hour or two afore and the hour or two after kick-off that stop at the normally locked up Bordesley Station. Ticket are 2/- return and save you an hour's worth of shoe leather.

On t'other hand, you could ask a local gondolier to take the Digbeth Branch from Gas Street and moor up in the Bordesley Basin, no'but a stroll from t'ground and t'Station. However, as I've warned you afore, t'basin might be full of dead dogs and supermarket trolleys and t'Brum lads don't take too kindly to none Brummie's suppin' in t'pubs near t'ground. Of course that were awul dun in Brummie a few yeeyars back so ya loikely furgorrit d'aintcha?

PS - once you get passed Wolvo there ain't a lock to be seen all the way to Brum. Full steam ahead, just don't wash the mallards down the slipways and the overflows when you get to one.

---

4 Dierby County
9 Jasper Carrott - or as he prefers to be known - Trevor Francis (hope it wasn't Bob Latchford), hmmm - no he was leading breaker of Town goalkeeper's legs or was it someone else 10 years (ish) earlier? Darn it, no, it wan't Jasper - he was already at Forest, just noted in your thread.

---

In other news Snoots - you've half a chance against Coventry - but don't hold your breath - about seeing Town play here.

[Lord Snooty]

Nice bit of local canal knowledge there theo. However, the quiz....

4. Wrong
9. Wrong

Remember, there are clues dotted all over the article.

[theo_luddite]

I was enjoying the wine so much I stopped reading after a while

[Lord Snooty]

Fall asleep?

[theo_luddite]

Eventually, but let's say 'relaxed on the sofa' to begin with
4 was their neighbours at the other end of Brian Clough Way wasn't it?

---

and 9 was probably Big Frank having looked again at when he was there.
The wine was the inspiration to look him up.

[theo_luddite]

It seems Season Card holders can watch the game on iFollow without buying a Pass
https://www.htafc.com/news/2020/october/...am-city-a/

[Lord Snooty]

Both correct theo.

[Lord Snooty]

[WakeyTerrier]

All midweek away games are available to season card holders, you can also catch via the red button on Sky