Once upon a time the only mention in a national newspaper of a match between Birmingham City and Wrexham in the third tier of English football would be to report the score. However, times have changed and tonight’s game is potentially the most reportable game in the whole EFL this season.
Birmingham City got their League One campaign off to a start with a 1-1 draw with Reading at St Andrew’s on Saturday. A late penalty scored by Alfie May rescued a point for a Blues team that struggled to create clear cut chances despite having the lion’s share of possession.
With the first home game of the season less than 72 hours away the last thing that Birmingham City needed was issues surrounding the distribution of season tickets. Yet despite sending out more than 18,000 digital season tickets on Tuesday evening it appears the club is at a crisis point of its own making.
Birmingham City beat Solihull Moors comfortably 3-0 at the Armco Arena on Wednesday night in the second match of their pre-season programme. Goals from Alfie May, Koji Miyoshi and Lukas Jutkiewicz ensured Blues won the third annual Arthur Cup in front of a busy crowd.
The Daily Mail reported on Monday afternoon that Blues had asked the EFL for permission to play their home League One fixture against Wrexham in America rather than in Birmingham. The report confirmed that the EFL very quickly shot the idea down but that hasn’t stopped a wider discussion of the idea.
Birmingham City announced the first signing of the 2024 summer transfer window on Tuesday afternoon, bringing keeper Ryan Allsop back to his boyhood club from Hull City for an undisclosed fee. After a summer of anticipation is this where the floodgates open?
On Thursday afternoon Birmingham City announced that they had appointed Chris Davies as First Team Manager on a four-year contract. The announcement ended what felt like an extraordinarily long recruitment process to replace Tony Mowbray, who was forced to step down due to his continuing ill health.
After multiple years of circling the plughole, on Saturday afternoon it finally came. Despite winning against Norwich, Blues found themselves relegated after every one of their rivals also pulled a last day win out of the bag. What should have been a summer of excitement for the future ahead has for now become one of suffering brickbats in the media.
Once again, it’s a last day of the season relegation battle for Blues only this time it’s hard mode; starting from the bottom three. A draw with Huddersfield all but condemned the Terriers to relegation but also means that even a win might not be enough for Blues next weekend if the results don’t go right.
Tuesday night saw Birmingham City hold their second Open House event which carried the theme of “Ambition”. The event was an opportunity for Chairman Tom Wagner and CEO Garry Cook to share plans for the club over the next five or six seasons including the outline of the move to the Birmingham Wheels Site.
