Birmingham must stop feeling the Blues to secure top ten finish

By Nicole Carroll in Birmingham City Fans Blog

Published 12:09 13/04/10

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It was the result that everyone was dreading. Once a season, every team gets a spanking. Our local rivals had theirs at Chelsea just a few weeks back, and 7-1 was the subject of many a joke.

Our own 5-1 loss against Manchester City wasn’t quite as funny though, and sent some message boards into meltdown about the state of the team at the end of the season, bemoaning the face that money should have been spent in January.

It’s very true we are horribly tired as a team, and it's probably time to chuck other faces with fresher legs onto the field, such as Michel and Benitez, who haven’t played much of late. Benitez may be on the way out of the club, but we may as well utilise him while we are still paying his wages, and with any luck he could go on a mini goalscoring spree.

Ultimately, we were just outclassed by a multi-million pound City side, who showed the gulf between fourth and ninth with a team that was on top of its game on Sunday. The fact that we lost, however, is not a reason to lament a side that has had a brilliant season, and still has more than a chance of a flourish to the end of the season, and a decent league position.

We’re unbeaten at home since September, an amazing record and something we can extend when Hull visit this weekend. Hull are desperately trying to plan the great escape from the bottom three, where they currently look stranded, four points from safety. They took their own battering from stricken Burnley last weekend, and can’t be looking forward to going away to a ground to face a team with such good home form.

Hull also had a brilliant first season in the Premier League, and are now having a terrible second one. We want to use them as an example of what we don’t want to happen, and if we want to go into next season well, we need to end this season on a good note, which includes picking up points and sealing our top ten finish. A home win to preserve our record will go a long way to doing this.

Play Chucho. Play Michel. Let’s get some fresh legs out there, terrorise that obviously problematic defence and give the home fans something to cheer about.

Is it about time Benitez got his first home goal? Yes. He’s not going to do it from the bench though. Come on Alex McLeish, give him the chance. It might just reward you (and hopefully reward you twofold or threefold).

Come on Blues, not long to go. Suck it up, knuckle down and let's go for our top ten position to seal a brilliant season.

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