Blues Res 1 - Man Utd Res 2 .. IPFreely Reports

Well, once again dear reader, we find ourselves sitting in a 90% empty and echoey St Andrews for a reserve game. Why they can’t play these at Solihull is completely beyond me. There were only about 1500 people there tonight. Anyway, enough of my whinging – to the match!

This was a pretty good game with both teams attempting to play football and generally succeeding. The passing was pretty fluid and quite imaginative. Manchester, as you would expect, fielded a fair proportion of Nancy Boy Showboaters but when they forgot about flicks, drag backs and stepovers, they looked very good. Blues fielded an exceptionally young team, comprising players aged from 16 to 19, plus Old Man Bennett in goal.

The first half was pretty even. Manchester were the more direct when attacking and probably created the better chances, most notably one effort which rattled off the underside of the crossbar. Benno was called upon to make three good saves in rapid succession and young Marcus Painter in central defence was having a hard time against United’s Colin Heath, who is a dirty git. As my scouser mate would say, he’s ‘gorra a gob you’d never get tired of smackin’.

Blues best play was generally coming from young Neil (Who) Kilkenny, in central midfield. This is the kid who recently joined from Arsenal and he oozes class. A small lad, he passes the ball with some alacrity and always seems to make time and space for himself. Older readers may think Liam Brady and they should get the general idea. Kilkenny was spreading the ball around and bringing Motteram and Till into play on the wings. Motteram fed Barrowman with a few decent crosses, none of which were converted.

Half time 0-0. Went for a Balti Pie and got into a surreal conversation with a bloke who turned out to be a visiting Baggies fan(!). He was cockahoop over last night’s win against Wigan and is convinced that Lee Hughes will be found innocent. Apparently it was the other driver who was drunk. Took me Balti Pie back to the stand and made sure to sit in front of the same three people I sat with in the first half. Their routine was worth the admission fee alone – one would make a comment and the other two would argue furiously against him. There was no pattern to this, with them seemingly taking turns to be the one vs the other two. If you’ve ever read 1984 by George Orwell, you’ll get the general idea with two armies always taking it in turns to fight the other one. Fascinating.

Second half – Manchester Showboaters took the lead after 64 minutes. The impressive Richardson left Blues’ James Blake for dead with a crisp turn and blazing show of pace, crossed the ball low and hard for Timm to mishit off his shin, deceiving Bennett with the bobble of the miscued ball.

Shortly afterwards, it was 2-0. This time the goal came after a bad chested back pass by Barrowman gave the ball straight to David Fox in Blues’ half. The ball was fed through to Timm on the edge of the box. Blues defence had been wrong footed by Barrowman’s mistake and Timm found himself with space and time to plant the ball firmly past Bennett. Nice finish.

Blues responded well. Kilkenny was continuing to show some silky skills and great awareness. He brought Motteram into play several times, but with no luck. Kilkenny’s most definitely one for the future, although he does have a tendency to back out of challenges. He’s only 18 though, so give him time.

Motteram was subbed for Mathew Birley immediately after Uniteds second goal. I reckon Bruce had requested this, just to make sure he has the option to put Motteram in the squad on Saturday.

Referee Mr Dimmo was having a shocker. He’s one of those referees that only sees the bleedin’ obvious, whilst remaining cheerfully oblivious to little pulls, pushes and shirt tugs, of which there were many. The offside rule was being applied with strict guidance from a random number generator whilst spectacular dives would be guaranteed a very warm reception. One classic interlude came midway through the half when a Blues player was tripped from behind, the ball ran free to a United player who was through on goal. He got clattered by a Blues player and retaliated. Mr Dimmo decided to ignore the trip, book the Blues player and his United cohort and award a free kick. Whilst he was delivering the Gettysburg Address to the two players, United’s other players got bored and took the free kick, trying to lob Bennett. The ball went out for a goal kick, so Mr Dimmo decided he’d better have the free kick retaken. Puzzled? So was I.

Blues pulled a goal back on 72 minutes, A free kick from about 30 yds out was flicked on by Barrowman. Young Painter (who had settled down and was now having a fine game) came in on the back post and bravely went in for a header from about 2 yds out. United’s keeper Carroll completely bottled the challenge and Painter forced the ball home, injuring himself in the process.

88 minutes and a great chance to level the game – Kilkenny (who else) sprayed a 40 yard ball out to Birley. Birley skinned the defender and pulled a great ball back for Barrowman who picked his spot and sidefooted the ball toward the corner of the net. An absolutely fantastic diving block by Manchester defender Paul Tierney deflected the ball over the crossbar with Carroll beaten.

After that, it pretty much fizzled out. 2-1 was a fair result. United had the better of the play and created more chances. Blues experimental team, however, emerged with great credit and played some decent football. If only the first team had played that well on Saturday, we’d be fourth in the league now.

No Brucie watch tonight – never saw him at all. I don’t think he missed me.


Blues: Bennett, Blake, Parratt, Kilkenny, Hall, Painter, Till, Howland, Barrowman, Curtis, Motteram (Birley, 68). Subs not used: Doyle (GK), Hamilton, Daly, Howell.