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-- Aaron Doran resumes full training and isn't match fit so I set him to play in our next reserve match, where he gets hurt and will miss another 5-6 days.
-- Exeter in the Championship beats QPR and we're going to be playing Exeter in the FA Cup Quarterfinals. They won't be an easy win, they made it into Continental play a couple years ago out of the Championship with a miracle run to the FA Cup final.
February 26th, 2022
Birmingham(14-2-13, 8th) @ Ipswich(9-9-11, 10th)
We are actually 4:6 favorites I assume in part due to having not lost in 5 matches (1 win and 4 draws). Birmingham only has two draws at this point so they win or lose most of the time.
GK: Capitani
D: Kirkland/Mattle/O'Brien/Jackson
DM: Mattila
M: Clifford/Mills
AM: Adagsmar/Gordon
F: Constantino
We go to our 4-1-2-2-1 today with Constantino up front, Mattila plays DMC today with Clifford and Mills at MC. Standard mindset for us today.
10': Kirkland is injured.
33': After a really boring start they get the ball ahead out left to ST Lovgren and he dribbles by Jackson, into the area, dodges a tackle attempt by O'Brien and scores... a great individual effort and very poor defending by O'Brien. 0-1
HALF: We shoot 4 times, they shoot 6, the only shot on target is their great goal. I bring Bryan in for Mattila and decide to play a more offensive formula that I haven't used since my woking days. 4-2-2-2, we'll see if they just break that down easily but Birmingham are playing a very defensive formation with a sweeper and two wing backs and I want the extra man forward trying to pick them apart.
48': Kirkland a yellow.
53': midfielder Bolzoni a yellow.
74': Mariga in for Clifford, a more offensive minded midfielder.
93': After 92 minutes of frustration we get the ball ahead quickly after passing all the way back to Capitani, ahead to Mattle, to Mills, to Constantino who is 35 yards out, their entire defense is behind him and has been for the last 30+ minutes. Constantino passes ahead to Chris Bryan, he's got two men nearby but does have a space to shoot, he shoots at the edge of the area... and its by the keeper and in!!! A spectacular finish in heavy, heavy traffic. 1-1
Ipswich 1 : 1 Birmingham
Their scorer is man of the match.
Goal: Bryan (6.9)
Assist: Constantino (6.8)
Notables: Jackson (7.1), Kirkland (7.0), Gordon (7.5), Adagsmar (7.0)
-- Kirkland has a twisted knee and is out for 2 weeks.
-- So we haven't lost in 6 matches... but that's 5 draws and 1 win. Its enough to push us away from relegation, but not good enough to give us any hope of 7th.
We've only got 8 matches left:
7. Man Utd - 48 pts
8. Birmingham - 45 pts
9. Huddersfield - 38 pts (1 less played)
10. Ipswich - 37 pts
11. Liverpool - 36 pts
12. Southampton - 34 pts (1 less match)
13. Everton - 34 pts (1 less match)
14. Blackburn - 34 pts
15. West Ham - 33 pts (1 less match)
16. Sheffield Utd - 31 pts
17. Nottingham Forest - 31 pts
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18. Sunderland - 29 pts
19. QPR - 25 pts
11 points behind 7th with only 8 matches to play. And look below us at all the teams with 33 or 34 points, some of which have a game extra to play that could end up tying us. We're 8 points ahead of relegation with 8 left and are pretty damn safe there but we would really like to find a few wins to make sure there's no slip up down to 14th!
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