BIrmingham v Swansea | Vital Football

BIrmingham v Swansea

keith margam

Vital Football Legend
Next up in our mini-season of 9 games is Birmingham away on Wednesday 8 July 18:00.
The form guide so far:

Birmingham PL4 W0 D2 L2 F3 A7 Pts2
WBA 0 - Birmingham 0
Birmingham 3 - Hull 3
Birmingham 0 - Huddersfield 3
Fulham 1 - Birmingham 0

Swansea PL4 W2 D1 L1 F6 A2 Pts7
Middlesboro 0 - Swans 3
Swans 0 - Luton 1
Millwall 1 - Swans 1
Swans 2 - Sheff Wed 1
 
This is another game, like Sheff wed, Luton, Boro that we should be winning. Birmingham are very poor, especially now after their manager will leave at the end of the season. Main concern here is being able to break down a defensive side as we don't play at a quick enough tempo.
 
Last night’s results and table above:
Cardiff 2 - Blackburn 3 (Danny Graham with one goal!)
N. Forest 0 - Fulham 1
Cardiff and Forest both slip up. Derby are away to West Brom tonight.
Amazingly the door is still open for the last play-off spot at least.
If only we could win tonight we would be just one point behind Cardiff in sixth place with four games left.
Wishful thinking or not?
 
The teams:

Birmingham City:
Lee Camp, Kristian Pedersen, Marc Roberts, Maxime Colin (captain), Dan Crowley, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Jeremie Bela, Jake Clarke-Salter, Gary Gardner, Ivan Sunjic, Scott Hogan.
Substitutes: Connal Trueman, Wes Harding, Maikel Kieftenbeld, Harlee Dean, Jude Bellingham, Caolan Boyd-Munce, Ryan Stirk, Nico Gordon, Jayden Reid.


Swansea City:
Freddie Woodman; Kyle Naughton, Marc Guehi, Ben Cabango; Connor Roberts, Jay Fulton, Matt Grimes (captain), Jake Bidwell; Conor Gallagher, Andre Ayew; Rhian Brewster.
Substitutes: Erwin Mulder, Mike van der Hoorn, George Byers, Bersant Celina, Nathan Dyer, Wayne Routledge, Aldo Kalulu, Yan Dhanda, Liam Cullen.
 
The referee:
Jarrod Gillett

The last Swansea game he took charge of was their Championship away fixture at Huddersfield in November 2019. That game finished in a 1-1 draw and there were five players cautioned and one sent off. The only Swansea players to receive a yellow card were George Byers and Borja Baston. He has refereed three Swansea games during his career, with the Swans drawing all of them. Mr Gillett will be assisted tonight by Richard Wild and Paul Hodskinson, with Leigh Doughty acting as the fourth official.
 
Birmingham 1 - Swansea 3
Jutkiewicz 5’ - Brewster 12’, Cabango 45’, Fulton 52’
 
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Steve Cooper: "It's three points, really important at this stage of the season. It's something every team is aiming for. It was a difficult start. Obviously you never want to concede but particularly from a set-play early on, it can really rock you. We weren't happy with that, but it was a brilliant reaction from the boys. I thought we played excellently in the first half in terms of our possession and our positioning. We looked a real threat. We moved Birmingham about, we were just waiting for the moment to create chances. I really liked us in the first half. Second half the message was pretty much to keep that going. I thought we did that."
 
Another one bites the dust after playing the Swans.
First Middlesborough manager Jonathan Woodgate was dismissed after our 0-3 win there 19 days ago.
Now it’s Pep Clotet, who last night vacated his position as head coach of Birmingham after our 1-3 win left them in 17th position, and 4 points off the drop.
He was due to step down at the end of the season anyway, but it was mutually agreed that he should relinquish the role immediately.
 
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Match stats Blues v Swans:
Possession: 40% - 60%
Shots: 20 - 10
On target: 5 - 4
Corners: 9 - 4
Fouls: 16 - 6
Cards: 2Y - 3Y
Ref: Jarred Gillett 5/10
 
Match stats Blues v Swans:
Possession: 40% - 60%
Shots: 20 - 10
On target: 5 - 4
Corners: 9 - 4
Fouls: 16 - 6
Cards: 2Y - 3Y
Ref: Jarred Gillett 5/10

cant believe they had 20 shots, it really didnt feel like many. Much better performance , a back 3 again and hopefully we can get something against Leeds, lets not be negative and take the game to them, they'll press us hard which worries me as we look nervous against that
 
Statistics are hard to figure out sometimes. I can’t remember them having 20 shots either.
 
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