Birmingham City: Colin Tattum's promotion season review
Colin Tattum, our man at St Andrew's and the Birmingham Mail's chief sports writer, gives his appraisal of Blues remarkable 2008-09 season that ended in promotion from the Championship to the Premier League.
Only now, with promotion in the bag, has the rage against the machine stopped.
It’s a peculiar trait that success at Championship level for Blues comes with a plenty of dissatisfaction and grief along the way.
Steve Bruce had it tough two years ago. So has Alex McLeish.
In both cases the managers achieved what was asked and for McLeish, however much he was a sponge to the pressure at Glasgow Rangers and at the head of a national team, Sunday’s denouement will have come as a blessed relief.
Throughout it all, Big Eck has stood front and steely square, he has remained calm and dignified – and he has got the job done.
On Sunday Blues fans were a picture of joyous celebration; no getting on the pitch to protest at the board and snap the goalposts like 12 months ago next weekend.
That discontent and disenchantment provided the backdrop this season, and McLeish and his players copped plenty of flak from supporters as well.
McLeish was prepared for a bumpy ride; Bruce, amongst others, warned him what to expect.
In pre-season, he revamped the backroom as he was retooling the team for the Championship.
Having felt that Blues lacked some mental toughness and quality as they slid out of the Premier League, he brought in the wily old heads of Lee Carsley, Kevin Phillips and Marcus Bent.
He had wanted Jason Roberts or James Beattie, and Ben Watson. But that’s another story.
He insisted, and the board agreed, that James McFadden and Sebastian Larsson should not be sold. If they didn’t like that, tough. Others went to ease the financial burden, like Mikael Forssell, Fabrice Muamba, Olivier Kapo, Daniel de Ridder and Rafael Schmitz.
And McLeish trusted in the likes of Maik Taylor, Liam Ridgewell, Radhi Jaidi, Garry O’Connor and Cameron Jerome to bring their talents to bear.
On paper, Blues squad looked the best of the lot. The idea was that they would play a more expansive game and score goals, but it was Wolves, perhaps surprisingly, who managed that on more occasions than not, and Blues - and McLeish by extension – suffered by comparison, as dour grinders.
As Carsley noted, other teams may have looked pretty, but Blues played winning football, effective football. Had Blues sparkled like Swansea City but drawn 20 matches and missed out on even the play-offs, would that have constituted a success?
Sure, the goals didn’t come. Whenever a striker got into his stride, he invariably got injured. The number of 1-0 wins – 10 - tells its own story. And at home, Blues scored just 30 times, even less than than bottom club Charlton Atheltic managed at the Valley.
Nevertheless, Phillips supremely cool predatory instincts – shown again at Reading - and Jerome’s knack for the important goal were priceless.
