Birmingham City v Derby County: Share your views on the match

“Billy wizz
I have supported NC 100% however I am beginning to become disillusioned as to the lack of progress.
Season ticket renewal time is coming up and yet we are looking at a relegation battle.
In 2013 we have P:12 W:2 D:5 L:5 and gained 11 points.
We have 9 games left and have 6 teams to play who are below us in the table and Blackpool who are just above us.
Millwall and Barnsley have 2 games in hand, Blackburn and Peterborough have 1 game in hand and we have to play all 4 of them.
Could be squeeky bum time I'm afraid.”

“sorry Billy wizz but it was the same side that should've best Cardiff so injuries are not an excuse.

Very simple solution, get in Nigel Atkins. Plays good football, has worked on a shoe string and knows how to get a side up!”

“Not sure why everyone has given up on anything from Leicester game - they have their own problems and aren't even the best team in the East Midlands at the moment. ...

As for getting ride of NC, who would he be replaced with ? We have a board who are £35 million out of pocket and who drip feed "investment" about a £1 million a season. Who would want to come with no money to spend? Plenty say we only have NC because of his name - but there are other reasons why we have him 1) He's relatively cheap 2) He did a good job on a shoestring at Burton 3) He played at the highest level 4) He's respected in football, by players and everyone else. If he was a well qualified coach and brilliant manager we couldn't afford him.

If Derby can't put out their best team they struggle - we've been missing too many players and asking those left to play through injury, so we get beaten at worst or draw at best without our better players on the park.

Everyone knows we need a mid-field enforcer in the Roy Keane mode, a striker in the Lionel Messi mode, and a central defence pairing like McFarland and Todd - trouble is we'll probably only have £1 - £2 million tops to get them all in. We have players out on loan when we could do with them being available - Bailey, Tyson and Robinson. Out on loan to save money and to allow others to be brought in to look over. Tyson is on a sick note as usual, Robinson is a fast runner but not a footballer, and Bailey doesn't seem to fit in to any long term plans.

We're waiting for Barker to solve the central defensive problem, and waiting for money to resolve the other problems. At least if we have players in on loan NC can see if they are good enough without it costing too much.

Will Hughes knits out midfield together - and we've been missing him, Wardy, Bryson, Brayford and O'Brien - that's about 50% of our 'first team'.

Hughes is a real find - (don't forget he was at F*rest before 'King Billy' dismantled their youth setup). He's fragile though and too easily targetted for a kicking in this division. I wouldn't like to lose him - but money will talk, I guess. We should hold out for as close to £10m as we can get. We could buy a lot of talent for £10m.

Anyway - things aren't all bad, we have the usual F*rest play off fiasco to look forward too - getting beaten in the semi-finals. Even if B*lly flukes another promotion we can watch the wheels come off - as they get beaten evey week - we all know he's totally out of his depth in the Prem. Something tells me their owners aren't what they seem, either...”

“No responses from the blind faith brigade. I would seriously like to know what situation would make you think we had got it wrong?”

“TOTALLY AGREE WITH ALL THE PREVIOUS COMMENTS OTHER THAN THE GUY IN NORWAY WHO HAS HAS OBVIOUSLY BEEN TAKING SOMETHING OR HAS A LOT OF PATIENCE!IF IT WAS JUST THIS SEASON THEN FAIR ENOUGH BUT WE HAVE HAD 4 SEASONS OF IT.THE PROOF TO ME THAT N/C AND HIS TEAM ARE NOT UPTO IT NO MATTER WHAT THE CIRCUMSTANCES IS SEEING WHAT IS HAPPENING DOWN THE A38 AT BURTON.ROWETT AS BEEN A MANAGER FOR JUST OVER ONE YEAR AND HE HAS BURTON ON THE VERGE OF PROMOTION TO THE FIRST DIVISION AND IT TOOK N/C TEN YEARS TO GET BURTON INTO THE LEAGUE.THE GAME AT BARNSLEY WILL CERTAINLY BE A 6 POINTER!”

“Not good enough by a long way and for a long time. Time for change before we hit the iceberg and someone please wake up GSE and let them know what is going on.”

“Two steps forward three back. How long has NC been here? I could just about take the readjustment time needed to strip the squad and start again, and after 12th last season and no relegation scrap my mind settled slightly. We were never going to get the wham bam you get with Billy Davies, but equally less likely to get the hangover the season after from the crazy wee Scot. Burton showed that. But I did expect to see gradual improvement. Top half better points tally would be fine this season. We certainly play pretier this season, and it's good to see home grown youngsters, but the table doesn't lie. 6 from relegation twelve from play-offs. Lets not talk about how many from the top. And it lools easier to fall down than get up. Two teams below have games in hand. We are poor in the final third, particularly at home, and fragile on the break. The fish works his socks off, pulls defenders out etc, and a strikers job doesn't only consist of goals but he scores less than one in four at championship. No one else is consistently there to score the goals around him. And before anyone bemoans injuries, every club deals with them. and if we consistently have more than others then why? Are we to become tthe new crewe? Will we ever see development? Playing nearly as well and losing or failing to win several times in a row is not bad luck. It is not playing well enough. And we are still leaking millions of pounds a year. I habeas always been unsure about NC'S's appointment, and + still am erring on the side of he just doesn't. Have what it takes, but still hope I am wrong. A good run of wins could still see us finish top half with more points, and if we do then I'm still happy. Wigan, stoke, Norwich, West Brom, swansea, these are all teams in the Prem that are by no means bigger than us. What they had to get up was not big budgets but good managers. How long are all the Pro NC'S willing to wait.? How many years before rebuilding becomes stagnation? I'd like to know what it would take for them to change their minds? I know probably nothing would persuade the anti crowd, but what about the ibelieveido's. Serious question for debate.”

“This is just depressing, every week expecting to get beat !! waiting for cloughs summing up of the game, same old rubbish," more experienced payers would have scored more goals in the 1st half", well stop playing 12 year olds then !! i know we have injuries, fair enough !! but your not your dad, and the fact of the matter is, we are heading for a relegation battle, Leicester next week on tv, doesn't bear thinking about. I'm sorry to be so negative but i used to love football, used to be positive and think we can compete with any team, but having to get players from the lower leagues and turning them into world beaters is a job young clough is just not capable of doing. Billy is back at forest, 5 wins in a row in the playoff places !! he can man manage, 8 games without a win, no clean sheet for god knows how long !! please please someone invset some money in my club, or div 1 and worse here we come.”

“We could and should have had a draw at least. The players deserved it after working hard all 90 minutes, Creating some very good chances throughout the game was not enough this time.
Nigel Clough is the right man to manage our team. He has been that since he came to our club, and we have the best Derby County team since year 2000 started. No doubt about it. We could have won almost every match this season. Only some few losses have been fair to take because the other team have played better that day.
Sometimes good teams lose against teams in the same area at the table, like we did today.
It doesn't mean the losing team are a bad team. We were playing well, leading away for over 1 hour, and the players did well until Birmingham scored. Our Derby County players were fighting hard for a draw in the end, but they scored a goal at overtime. Things like that happens all the time with all teams.

Remember it was many strange results today:
Number 2 Watford losing at home 1-2 to team number 17 Blackpool
Number 9 Middlebrough losing to number 23 Bristol City.
Number 5 Leicester losing to number 19 Sheff Wed at home.
Number 16 Birmingham beat us Derby County, number 12, at their home turf.
No big deal.
We all know that no of the managers of Watford, Leicester or Middlesbrough are bad managers because of losing like they did today against weaker teams, or "should have built their team now, and because of losing they have to go". No, no, no. They are good managers, like Nigel Clough of course still is even after this defeat to Birmingham. And all those managers deserve to be supported by the clubs real fans. Our own Nigel Clough too.
Till 27 points to fight for. Looking forward to our next homegame.”