Now that’s what supporting Birmingham City is all about. Just when you think they’ve cracked it they boot you in the soft squidgy things dangling between your legs. That is if you’re a man. I’m not sure what ranks as similarly painful for women. A full store card perhaps? We take on the mighty Liverpool and outplay them, outfight them and, thankfully, outscore them to record a massive double over a team chasing European glory from a position of strength after the first leg games. We just needed to follow that with a victory over lowly Palace to whom we owed a good kicking after they mugged us at St Andrews earlier this season. In games against the lower clubs it seems motivation can sometimes be difficult. In fact on the Sky Sports Monday Night Show in November ex Arsenal striker Alan Smith quite rightly stated that Birmingham seemed to play well in matches against the top teams (Chelsea, Manchester United, Newcastle, etc) but struggled against the relegation fodder. Is it simply a question of motivation? How much motivation does a team need? As said, Palace robbed us of three points in front of our own fans and the goal was scored by an ex Blues player in a match slightly overshadowed by a potential flash point left over from an international match between Palace’s Hughes and some pony tailed gimp. Steve Bruce used to manage Palace and when he left there he took with him Clinton Morrison and Julian Gray, two of their bright young stars. Motivation aplenty. Morrison has moaned lately that he has been left out unfairly as he was playing well. This does not quite fit with my view of the matches. Sure he works hard, sure he has set up some goals and linked well with his partners but the big problem, that cannot be ignored, is that he just doesn’t look like scoring. Ever! He can only shoot by falling over and this is not conducive to being well balanced and being able to strike the ball cleanly. The good strikers are upright and trying to stay on their feet when they shoot, this also allows for reacting to any rebounds. Mind you, Gray stands on his feet when he shoots and he also never looks like scoring! Morrison’s predicament is understandable. To score some runs you have to be at the wicket. No one has ever scored from the bench. He wants to play and he wants to strut his stuff. He has to realise though that he can only walk like Huggy Bear when he has got something to be cocky about. Clinton, score twenty goals a season for a few seasons running and you can have chips on both shoulders as far as the fans are concerned. Until then keep quiet until you have a record worth bragging about. And I don’t mean an early copy of ‘The Birdie Song’! Dowie’s team won the game with two penalties and certainly seem to be getting more than their fair share for a side at the bottom. The teams in the drop zone are normally starved of fortune and ignored by cyclopic referees. Little AJ has the balance of a drunken Bambi but nitpicking is futile (unless you are a Primary School teacher). The apportioning of blame is like a broken pencil (pointless) and the defence have been exemplary since we reached the Premiership, we just have to learn from our mistakes. Thankfully the teams below have been trying desperately hard not to make any attempt to escape the dreaded bottom three. Never have so few, tried so hard to throw away so much, as Churchill once tried to say. Speaking of discarding something useful, it is a crying shame that Jermaine Pennant was sentenced to three months. The justice system works in strange but procedural ways and we have to accept that the wig wearing Neanderthals know what they are doing. All we can hope is that he serves his punishment without problem, learns from his misdemeanours and realises that he is still lucky enough to have a career. Given that he was driving down the street oblivious to a lamp post wedged under the vehicle he has to be grateful there were no jay walkers. The sentence then would have ended his career. The club have vowed to stand by him and this is to be applauded. We all make mistakes. I once took a sleeping pill and a laxative at the same time. Not recommended. We must wonder how many more times the Baggies can make it back to the Premiership. For Ginger Megson to lead his troops out of the wilderness and into the Promised Land not once but twice was a remarkable achievement. The other remarkable aspect was that they hardly learnt from the mistakes first time round. Survival in the Premiership depends upon an excellent all round squad with a proven goalscorer banging away week in and week out like a Dutch porn star. I think all the people in the world who saw a life saving combination of Kanu and Horsfield could be gathered in one phone box. The fans love the mercurial (ha!) Kanu for his silky skills, rubber legs and crap hair style and our own St Andrews faithful adored the Horse but neither of them could hit the anus of a Friesian with a stringed instrument. The acquisition of the midget Earnshaw was a desperate and bold decision by the Baggies but he isn’t exactly Dugarry and he certainly isn’t the Finnish albino. The truth of the tail of the table is that three of the four are going down. The question now is who wants to stay up, the rewards are there and well known. The waste of valuable points by the bottom four has been astonishing and none more generous than our unintelligible neighbours. This profligacy will be their Achilles Heel. It’s no good fighting like Trojans if you’re going to lose the war to a foot injury! It is useless for me to indulge in prognostications regarding the final score. I’m not rich enough to be Nostradamus or brave enough to spare a cheeky ten pence on the outcome. I will simply put my faith in my trusty Rifle ably aided by the battering ram known as Heskey. Get the ball in the box and put pressure on the Albion centre halves who will struggle like two pensioners trying to send texts to each other and victory will be ours. And then world domination! Maybe not. Keep Right On and be safe, especially if you sit up in the big seat! 