No substitute

Birmingham City 1 Toon 1

'Suppose it could have been worse. A point at St Andrews, it all felt a bit like a draw in a cup game. Sort of vaguely satisfying, but not quite enough somehow.

The positives of last night were,

• starting with 3 up front with Oba amongst them - for me the main difference between tonights game and the abject surrender at Liverpool
  
• a very good performance from Butt, who seemed show a passion for the game that so many of his colleagues lacked
• EMO scored a goal (which maybe will be priceless at the end of the season)
• We came back from a goal down for the first time since the ball had laces in it
• We could have won it and the overall performance was so much better than against Liverpool
  

The negatives of last night were

• Joey Bloody Barton - As BAWARAL said " Just do everyone a favour, Joey, and plead guilty" He was awful all night.
• Geremi's corners were, by and large, complete rubbish
  
• Faye - for a man with physique of a heavyweight boxer in his prime, he was humiliated by the lightweight that was James McFadden for their goal - and left on the turf on his arse
• No wingers, until Charlie Zog came on
• Mark Viduka looked knackered after 15mins, but played the full 90.

However, the most baffling thing of the night was the decision to substitute Obafemi Martins with about 20 mins to go. He made Owen's goal, he was a threat throughout the whole of the 2nd half, and most of all his pace troubled the Birmingham defence - which is more than Owen or Viduka did. I was one of the ones that booed when I saw the No 9 go up on the subs board. I've expressed my thoughts on this before, but Keegan cannot make a sensible substitution to save his life - he didn't do it the first time here, nor for England, nor for City... Last night it was just baffling. Why put on Charlie Zog when Martin's was doing so well... I was baffled and so were those around me.

Still, a point has moved us up a place in the table, it could have been worse... It makes Saturday's game another really important one and we must get 3 points from Fulham.

Funniest things from last night :-

• the slowest pitch invasion in the world, and all the guy succeeded in doing was getting 3000 Geordies to laugh and wave at him
• Liam Ridgewell catching the ball because he thought the offside flag had been raised.. The look on his face as the free kick was given was priceless
  
• the unmarked police car that swept into the away end with three coppers in uniform looking all important. One of them got out, put on his helmet and went to the boot of the car... Opened it and got out an empty tea urn.., Two thoughts, (a) was this a sanctioned use of tax-payers money? (b) why did he feel the need to put is helmet on, afraid that the Northern ruffians might try to beat him up for us urn???

So, until Saturday comes... As a fanzine once named itself.