Birmingham City 2, West Ham United 2 - Colin Tattum's big match verdict
Nov 8 2010 by Colin Tattum, Birmingham Mail
THE way it was going, plenty of Blues fans wouldn’t have minded accompanying David Gold.
Being banned and missing what transpired for 60-odd minutes would have been viewed as a lucky escape.
But then, as they so often have done before, Blues threw off the cloak of invisibility and got the glad rags out.
Gold said it was ‘heartbreaking’ to have been denied access to St Andrew’s following his ‘disgusting’ jibe at Peter Pannu.
He was probably ecstatic when West Ham went 2-0 up and appeared well set for their first away win since the opening day of last season.
By the end, after Cameron Jerome and Liam Ridgewell scored in a stirring Blues recovery, he must have felt like crashing his plane into Wast Hills, this time deliberately.
The former chairman wanted ‘revenge’ on Pannu. His personal beef overshadowed the build-up to the match, and triggered the ultimate sanction.
There was no ‘one out, all out’ boycott by West Ham. David Sullivan and his family turned up, and one of his pals took Gold’s directors’ seats.
Sullivan didn’t offer Carson Yeung his £10,000 gold and diamond BCFC cufflinks and broach (he didn’t want to put him in an awkward position) and by all accounts the atmosphere in the boardroom was relaxed and cordial, while in the arena itself the response to Sullivan’s presence was muted from the Kop and Tilton Road, to say the least.
It’s events on the pitch that really matter, and Blues’ fans perhaps were concentrating their thoughts there and trying to fathom out what was happening for a large swathe of the game.
Alex McLeish kept faith with the same diamond system and team – apart from Cameron Jerome for Garry O’Connor – that saw off Blackpool.
Only West Ham weren’t as open and flimsy. And Blues’ careful, safe, passing style had nothing at the end of it.
They were pedestrian and narrow, the ball rarely stayed up top and West Ham, playing two strikers supporting Carlton Cole from wide, often pressed Blues back deep into their own area.
It was discomforting, and there was no fizz, no spark about Blues.
