Birmingham City 1-1 Brentford

Birmingham City 1-1 Brentford
Sky Bet Championship
Saturday 15th February 2020

A point apiece was a fair reflection from this end-to-end, intriguing contest played in terrible weather as Storm Dennis swept through St Andrews.

Lukas Jutkiewicz's early stab-shot had the home crowd celebrating but the Blues' deserved lead lasted just four minutes with Ethan Pinnock finding a leveller from a well-worked set-piece. Thereafter, the promotion-chasing visitors definitely had the better of things though they lacked a sting up as 'keeper Lee Camp was equal to their best efforts.

With Leeds beating Bristol City, the gap between Brentford and the automatic promotion spots has widened to three points so they'll no doubt be kicking themselves that they couldn't get three points which would have firmly kept up the pressure on their rivals.

I usually spend my Saturday's watching Doncaster Rovers' youngsters in the EFL Youth Alliance but with no fixture scheduled this week, the break allowed for a 'random' trip somewhere and, after being offered a ticket for this game, it was too good to turn down.

As with most of my previous visits to St Andrews, the weather was miserable and reminiscent of when I saw the Blues bugger things up against Blackpool in the play-offs, eight years ago. I've only been once to St Andrews since - witnessing a 1-1 draw in the Second City derby with Aston Villa in October 2016 and I got caught in a downpour that day, as well.

The trip to the West Midlands wasn't good with Cross Country trains providing a chaotic 'sardine special' service with one carriage out of use altogether, no seat reservations and, effectively, three carriages of people crammed tightly together into two, with dozens of Huddersfield supporters also making their way to Derby. The conditions were totally unacceptable, undoubtedly compromising public safety, and any health and safety inspector worth their wage would have slammed the provider for such a shambles; not to mention how problematic/severe things may have been if an accident had occurred. I'll leave my thoughts on them at that!

Having seen Brentford beat Barnsley in such impressive fashion on Sky Sports earlier in the season, I was looking forward to seeing them 'live'. In my opinion, even though they're unfashionable, ugly to outsiders and quite a small club, they've been absolutely fantastic in the Championship this season - punching above their weight to great effect. Their huge +27 goal difference perfectly underlines their credentials and they'd be worthy of promotion in my eyes.

Despite that, they began this game in lethargic fashion as Birmingham's pace and fluidity tore them to shreds in the opening quarter-hour. Before youngster Jude Bellingham (more on him further down in this post) saw a powerful 20-yard shot ricochet off the post inside 10 minutes, they'd already survived a couple of scares with the hosts grabbing the initiative from the very first whistle.

The opener wasn't a surprise with visiting 'keeper David Raya falling for Scott Hogan's near-post dummy when Gary Gardner got into a dangerous position close to the byline and flashed a low ball across the goalmouth which was turned home by Jutkiewicz.

At 1-0, Birmingham's lead was absolutely deserved but they couldn't hold onto it.

From the Bees' first corner-kick, Emiliano Marcondes' clever right-sided delivery evaded everyone who'd packed out the six-yard box aside from Pinnock who was on hand to head home at the far-stick. It was an excellent set-piece routine, highly intelligent, perfectly executed and quite similar to one that Harrogate Town adopted in a couple of games when I saw them last season.

Given it was still relatively early in the game I wondered if it might turn out to be a goal-fest and, although that proved not to be the case, it was still quite entertaining, absorbing and good to watch, despite the BBC Sport website describing it as 'drab' - were they even at the game?

Brentford gained momentum as the first period wore on and had more possession with the hosts seeming content to sit back, keep their shape and work off any long-throw opportunities which occasionally arose. The Bees' extra time on the ball culminated in a few chances - most notably when Camp expertly foiled Ollie Watkins in a one-on-one where the odds seemed stacked in the favour of the striker, The ex-Nottingham Forest 'keeper also defied his critics (of which there are quite a few at St Andrews) by showing great agility to keep out a teasing effort from Said Benrahma close to the interval.

At the other end, the Blues did muster up a couple of chances with Marc Roberts having a header saved, whilst an attempt by Ivan Sunjic lacked accuracy.

Thomas Frank's team continued to play on the front foot after half-time but again they remained frustrated in their efforts to take three points back to West London. Watkins saw a shot deflected wide and Camp made another good stop to deny Benrahma but their best opportunity was amidst an almighty, old-fashioned goalmouth scramble.

Birmingham saw a penalty appeal turned down in the closing stages when Pinnock unquestionably handled the ball inside the area. It was clear and obvious (no need for VAR) and maybe referee Steve Martin thought if he awarded it, he'd get accused of favouratism considering he'd made a string of mistakes (e.g. twice wrongly-awarding goal-kicks instead of corners) which went against Brentford, as well as turning down a penalty for them earlier in the game.

The officials didn't have a good game; being less diplomatic their collective performance was sh*te and their ineptitude was perfectly summed up when the Fourth Official held the board up to signal 112 minutes of injury-time when, in actual fact, there was only meant to be four extra minutes.

A point apiece was fair enough and Birmingham will probably be the happier, in reflection, even though they'll feel hard done by considering their aforementioned penalty shout.

Whether Pep Clotet can persuade the teenage Jude Bellingham to stay at St Andrews remains to be seen, however, you don't need to be Albert Einstein to work out that with almost 30 appearances already to his name, the 16-year-old has a very bright future ahead of him. He's tall, gangly and strong for his age, and although his touch let him down a bit as the game wore on, he certainly posed some problems whenever the hosts got the ball into good areas. He'll only get better with experience and it's no surprise that the Premier League vultures are already circling in the hope of tempting him elsewhere.

Finally, I'm a massive fan that, in 2020, Birmingham enter the pitch to 'The Tamperer'. Even though they've chopped and changed it over the past decade or so, it's a classic banging tune, unique to them and long may it last!