Risk-taker Steve sees a glimmer among all the gloom
IT was difficult not to feel a sense of trepidation when the Blues team sheet was revealed at 4.30pm on Saturday afternoon.
It wasn’t so much the players on the park that gave cause for consternation – nor the ones who weren’t – but the switch to three central defenders set alarm bells ringing.
Or, more accurately, the switch to three at the back on a two-day turnaround was what was most concerning.
It felt risky, indeed it was risky, and after listening to Steve Cotterill discuss the matter after his side had gutsed out a solid 1-1 draw, we discovered the extent of that gamble.
“You don’t really want to be coming here when Sheffield United have had a game on Tuesday and an extra day’s prep,” the manager explained.
“By the time we got back from Middlesbrough it was about 3am, so then Thursday was a washout. It’s been hard but the boys have been very receptive.”
That effectively left one day to prepare a new system to face the Championship’s most in-form strike pairing.
In their current form the rejuvenated Leon Clarke and canny Billy Sharp aren’t players against whom to be taking liberties.
It was all a little redolent of a previous regime when Blues oscillated between a three and four-man backline in a perpetual search for the right answer.
“It was a risk but this is where I haven’t had the pre-season,” continued Cotterill. “I would probably have done this in pre-season.
“It’s going to take time integrating the new players into it. It was a risk but thankfully it was all right.”
Cotterill cut a satisfied figure postmatch, admitting he would have taken a draw at the outset. So would most who feel any affection for Birmingham City.
His was the demeanour of a manager who had not only enjoyed a successful gamble – but had perhaps seen a glimmer of a way through the murk that has hung around St Andrew’s for nearly a year.
His players had responded positively to his instructions – and that was the most gratifying outcome.
Three central defenders might be the long-term answer, it might not.
The real stand-out feature of the game was not necessarily the change of tactical direction but the open-mindedness of his players to accept it and their determination to implement it.
Whatever Blues lacked in the quality of their attacking work on Saturday evening, they made up for with the quantity and quality of their defensive performance.
It was just a second away point of the campaign but over the whole piece it felt like another inch of ground reclaimed.
It was also enjoyable to have those pre-match misgivings replaced by the sensation of a pleasant surprise.
In the unlikely setting of a chilly, damp Bramall Lane the gloom might have lifted an inch, at least until next Monday night when the rampant league leaders roll into town.