Birmingham City’s failure to maintain their lead at Huddersfield Town has set up a nerve jangling, do-or-die final day clash with Norwich City. Anything other than victory will see Blues in League One next season.
The Huddersfield draw was symptomatic of Blues’ season. They got themselves into a good position but failed to manage the game properly, conceded a soft goal and didn’t show any bouncebackability once Rhys Healey had levelled the match.
Given what's at stake, Huddersfield’s equaliser less than two minutes into the second half really rankled with veteran striker Lukas Jutkiewicz. He said: “We knew what was going to come at the start of the second half. They are fighting for their lives and you knew that, first 10 or 15 minutes, they were going to be on top of us and we would have to weather that storm.
“And we didn’t do that. It was a poor goal, a poor time to concede and that’s been a bit of a theme as well, conceding goals at shocking times – before half-time against Watford, injury time goals. It’s really frustrating that we weren’t able to manage the game properly.”
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A blow for Norwich
We are all wondering how strong Norwich boss David Wagner will go at St Andrew’s. The last time he brought a team already assured of a play-off place to B9 at the business end of the season he made wholesale changes. Blues beat his Huddersfield team 2-0 with 10 men and an investigation was launched by the EFL to stop it happening again.
Wagner will most likely make changes but he might be without experienced striker Ashley Barnes. Barnes came on as a substitute against Swansea on Saturday before limping off with an injury.
“He had some problems with his Achilles in the week and he now has a calf injury,” Wagner revealed afterwards. “We will have to assess it and see how serious it is.”
If Barnes is out, it gives Wagner another reason to rest striker Josh Sargent – who has 16 goals from 25 matches this season – ahead of their upcoming play-off campaign.
And a potential blow for Eustace
Ironically, ex-Blues boss John Eustace now manages one of the clubs Blues are bidding to climb above on the final day. Eustace's Blackburn Rovers go to Premier League-bound Leicester City in need of one more point.
Eustace will travel to the King Power Stadium but he might not be able to take his place on the touchline. The 44-year-old was sent to the stands during Blackburn’s 0-0 draw with Coventry on Saturday after an altercation with Sky Blues midfielder Casey Palmer.
There is some confusion as to whether Eustace will take his place in the dugout or whether he will have to watch Blackburn’s final day drama from the stands. Assistant Keith Downing, also formerly of Blues, told the Lancashire Telegraph: "We will obviously speak to the powers that be.
"We'll see what happens. We will be there if John is there by our side and if he's not, we'll be well prepared and he will be around the place still. He is very influential, he's been very positive around the place, he's a very good leader. We will miss him if he's not there.”
Planning application goes in
Away from the pitch – a more enjoyable aspect of following Blues this season – and plans have been submitted to construct the fan park in the Main Stand car park. The application was filed by Birmingham City Council on Friday.
It stated: “Creation of a fan park area to existing football stadium to include converted shipping containers and canopies for the sale of food, beverage and merchandise, external seating areas, stage with TV screen, perimeter fencing and netting and associated works for a temporary period of 10 years.”
Club chiefs hope to have the fan park open for some of this summer’s Euros before supporters experience it at Blues games next season. In addition to this permanent fan zone, Knighthead are planning to create a pop-up fan park on the other side of the stadium outside the Kop.
