County 1 Birmingham 1

Macca’s header (and more) through the eyes of Mozzer

Jan 08, 2025

Wednesday 8 January 2024

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Dear County fans, Stopfordians, Birmingham supporters, and anyone else from The Football Family joining us today, a very warm welcome to your Wednesday edition of The Scarf My Father Wore.

Mozzer joins us today to reflect on that game of two halves at Edgeley Park on New Year’s Day, along with Birmingham fan Ryan Deeney. Click here to check out Ryan’s Substack on the Blues.

Today’s edition is sponsored by APL Locksmiths. A big thank you to Anthony, who’s offering a 20% discount for The Scarf My Father Wore readers on any key cutting this month. If you need anything doing, give him a call on 07712 657585 or email anthony@apllocksmiths.co.uk.

Thanks also to Two Fat Blokes who sponsor our Birmingham City content on the website.

Finally, I’m currently walking every street in Stockport to raise money for mental health charity Mentell. If you’d like to make a donation to help me reach my target, please click here.

Total distance so far: 192.73 miles

Total steps so far: 311,804

Total raised so far: £2,192

Total completed streets so far: 474 (Click here for the full list, which includes reports and photos from every day of the walk.)

Further information on the walk can be found by clicking here.

Des Junior

✍️ Wednesday’s match in one word

Mozzer: Robust.

Ryan: Exhausting.

🤔 Pre-match thoughts

Mozzer: That I’d take a point. The third of a tough run of league games and with a bit of an injury crisis to deal with, against the team pretty much everyone expects to take the title and who haven’t lost in seven or eight games? Yeah, I definitely thought a point would be a good result.

Ryan: We haven't coped with the schedule (it's crazy that Crawley was played on the Monday rather than the previous weekend like the rest) so I just wanted to get in, get whatever result we could and get out.

🧐 Post-match thoughts

Mozzer: That we probably dropped two points but that the performance, especially after the break, should hopefully calm the catastrophisers amongst the fanbase who seemed to be writing us off a bit as a team due to the losses to the squad, injury-related and otherwise. In amongst all the positives, I’ve started to lose a bit of patience with those in our fanbase who write off players too quickly and who don’t really give enough credit to Challinor to get something out of what we’ve got. I don’t think you can lose players like Horsfall, Bate and Barry and not be affected by it to some degree, but those who did play gave a more than reasonable account of themselves and showed they deserve the support they got in that second half.

Ryan: A point was well-earned if a little undeserved.

🔵 Verdict on County

Mozzer: I didn’t think the first half was quite as bad as has been made out by some, but we were the architects of their goal, although it was a decent strike, and for all that I thought we did a reasonable job of steadying things after about 10-15 minutes, we didn’t really create enough to think we should be level. At half-time I was worried that even a point would be beyond us. The second half was absolutely superb though. I did expect us to come out fired up but I also expected that fizzle out after 10-15 minutes if we hadn’t made a breakthrough. The sustained intensity of it was what was most pleasing – we really didn’t let Birmingham get a foothold in the game after the break and we tried to play some front foot football. I’ve seen one or two Birmingham fans trying to suggest we just lumped it, but that can only be sour grapes. I said to a mate at half-time that I thought our best chance would come from Knoyle and MaSH combining down the right, because that’s where I thought we looked to have most joy in the first half. I wasn’t expecting the goal to come from the Welsh Genius going all Kevin Francis at the far stick, but what a cross from Rydel (another one being written off by some) and what a header! I thought the performance overall deserved the three points and if I was a Birmingham fan I’d have been pleased to get out of EP with a draw. I think the reasonable, ongoing criticism of us is that we don’t score enough from the possession we have in good areas (I’m not a possession bore, but this is about what we do with it when we’ve got teams on the back foot) and that’s probably what cost us a couple of points in this one.

Ryan: Good. You had a really good second half against us a few weeks ago and turned up following a similar pattern of going man-for-man and being aggressive. We started well and there was a lot of space to exploit early doors. But as we tired, you grew in confidence, started winning the key duels, made positive substitutions and got a well deserved equaliser.

⚫️ Verdict on Birmingham

Mozzer: Based on what I saw there, they’re not dead certs to go up. I’ll accept they must be better than that more often than not, and I’m giving us plenty of credit for stopping them doing what they wanted. They certainly looked dangerous when they got the ball going forward, but their goal and best other chance were down to our mistakes and once we got on top of their midfield I saw nothing there for anyone to worry about. I think the plus side, if you’re a Birmingham fan, is that they did dig in. You can’t steamroller every team, every week, so when it gets difficult you need to get what you can out of a game. I think they did that.

Ryan: Tired. We're not in a position to make excuses and we probably ought to have managed this schedule better. At the same time, we've got too many players less than 100% at the moment. Krystian Bielik, who gave the ball to Kyle Wootton late on, and Tomoki Iwata, who was dispossessed leading to MSH hitting the post, have played every minute of all four games in less than nine days. They looked dead on their feet. The same goes for Willum Willumson who has started all four and was hooked just after the hour. Our wingers are all absent (Scott Wright returned after three months out and arguably cost us by not closing down the cross), hence central midfielder-turned-right-back Taylor Gardner-Hickman starting on the right-wing. Christoph Klarer played through a hip problem. Alex Cochrane has stitches in his foot. It's why County’s approach worked. You were aggressive and sharp and able to win the key duels which allowed you to have more of the ball and keep us penned in for a fair amount of the second half. And our sharpness and decision making just got worse as the game went on, particularly in the areas that are often so key for us in controlling things from the back. I appreciate that people will read this and think "well, you spent **insert made up fee** so you should be able to cope". And I get it. What we're seeing at the moment is what people claiming "you're in for a shock" were perhaps anticipating. A lot of change, a lot of new lads playing their first seasons in England, most of our signings not having a full pre-season. We're seeing the impact of that right now in the quality of our performances. And yet, we've picked up eight points from our last four and remain unbeaten in ten in all competitions. We're finding a way to earn points and showing another side to our game. A draw away at one of the best sides in the division is no disaster.

🎩 Top Hatter

Mozzer: Pick one of several, I think. I’ve probably got a bit carried away with the overall performance, based on the second half. If we’d been *that* good we’d have won. And we didn’t. But I thought that once we got going we worked really well, collectively. Camps made a real difference when he came on; I like Knoyle and MaSH down the same side (and that obviously nearly brought its full reward); I like the fact Birmingham fans are bleating about Wootton giving out as good as he got from their defenders; and, after the wobbly start, our backline did a decent job marshalling their front men meaning that after his couple of decent saves Ben was mostly left mopping up overhit lumps forward from them. I’m going to give it to Ethan Pye though. He made one error in the first half that nearly let them in for a second but other than that he was imperious at the back. He’s evolved as a player in our team to the extent that I think his value to us is often underestimated, because excellence is the norm with him. His level of calm exceeds his experience, his decision-making is usually exemplary, he fits nicely into the system we have for playing out from the back and his all-round qualities mean I can’t see him staying here for very long. Utter class. And one of our own.

Ryan: It felt like one of those where the team stepped up rather than any individual. I'd probably have to say Kyle Wootton. Played the full 90, battled away against three centre-halves and won more than his fair share of duels. Gave you a real foothold in the game which many strikers can't do against us. Macauley Southam-Hales was another, and not just for the late efforts at goal.

🔵 Top Blue

Mozzer: No one stood out, frankly, but for reasons different to ours. As noted, I thought they looked dangerous in that first 15 minutes or so when they got the ball, but we dominated their midfield after that, particularly after the break, and their much-vaunted frontline didn’t impress on the day. Given that they mostly stood up to our second half showing. I’ll have to give it a defender, and as one of them got mugged by MaSH and another nearly gifted us the winner with a ludicrous backpass, I’ll say Klarer, for saving his defensive pal a horrible journey home by blocking Wootton’s subsequent effort (which was a great block and not a bad miss, for those County fans who can’t tell the difference).

Ryan: Probably Ben Davies. He just quietly goes about things and makes good decisions.

👂 Atmosphere

Mozzer: Not bad round us, our first game without the away fans immediately to our right. We still made a noise, but it can’t be denied it’s not quite as much fun without the sparring. I thought their support was poor, noise-wise. You’ve got to allow for the fact they were in open-air seats and they spent the second half watching a game that was largely played some way from them. Even so, they didn’t make much noise even when they were 1-up and on top. Expected better.

Ryan: I wasn't at the game, but I'm informed the atmosphere in the away end wasn't fantastic. The problem with winning most weeks is the expectation it creates, so performances like those of late are hardly warming up the fans.

🙏 Hopes for the rest of the season

Mozzer: I still maintain that this season is about us progressing so that we’re in a better position next season and then the one after that. Upper mid-table feels realistic to me.

Ryan: Same as always. Win the title. For all the concern that seems to be coming out at the moment, we are still on track for a record points haul as it stands and the only reason we aren't as clear as nearby Walsall in League Two is because other clubs in League One are having unbelievable campaigns themselves. Credit to them. I just can't wait to get Wigan out of the way (how is it possible that their game got called off on New Year’s Day, giving them, essentially, a week's rest ahead of playing us in this schedule?!), have a week off and return to some normality.

😀 Best part of the day

Mozzer: The equaliser, without a doubt. The atmosphere had been building and that was a proper celebration. At that point it did feel like we could go on and win it.

Ryan: Staying up to watch the fireworks blowing off outside of our house at midnight.

😡 Worst part of the day

Mozzer: Getting into the ground slightly late after a bit of a convoluted journey to EP, but just in time to see them score a goal they had no business scoring, creating that sinking feeling that it was going to be one of those afternoons.

Ryan: The little one deciding to wake up for a feed a couple of hours after we’d gone to bed. As tired as the players I watched later on!

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