Birmingham City

Birmingham City v Reading
Sky Bet Championship
St Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium
Tuesday 23rd October 2018

7:45pm

Journey Time to the ground: 3 hours.  As we had the day off work we left home at 1:30pm intending to go the National Sea Life Centre, but after arriving at 3:45pm and having a quick look, we decided against this and headed to the Bull Ring instead.  We had a look at China Town and a look around the shopping centre before getting some dinner in the Tonkotsu outlet in Selfridges.  We left the Bull Ring around 6:40pm and headed towards St Andrew's, parking up in Jenkins Street at 7:15pm, which was a ten minute walk from the ground.

Ticket Price: £10

Programme Price: £3

This was my first visit to St Andrew's, a ground I had wanted to visit for quite a while and with the ticket prices being so reasonable we decide to make the trip.  We had tickets in the away end in the Gil Merrick Stand Lower Tier.  The leg room wasn't too bad and the view from behind the goal was good.  The Gil Merrick Stand is a two-tiered stand, although the upper tier wasn't open on our visit.  The lower tier is shared with home fans.

To the left of the Gil Merrick Stand is the Main Stand.  This small two-tiered stand houses the team dug-outs at it's front.  Opposite the Gil Merrick Stand is the Tilton Road End which is a large single-tiered stand.  To the right of the Gil Merrick Stand is the Spion Kop which is also a large single-tiered stand.  The most vociferous Birmingham fans tend to congregate in the Tilton Road End.

The first-half was a fairly even affair with both side struggling to create chances in an uneventful opening period.

Reading continued their worrying trend of conceding early goals after half-time when Birmingham opened the scoring in the 49th minute.  Jota's left-wing corner was met by Michael Morrison, who flicked a header into the path of Gary Gardner who stabbed the ball home from close range.  The lead was doubled in the 70th minute when Lukas Jutkiewicz floated a header in at the far-post from Che Adams's right-wing cross.  Reading grabbed a late consolation in the last minute of normal time when Yakou Meite latched on to Andy Yiadom's long ball and slotted passed Lee Camp in the Birmingham goal, however it was a case of too little too late and The Blues held on for the win.

Attendance: 22,126 with 503 Reading fans.

Atmosphere:  The atmosphere was really good.  The home stands all seemed to be pretty full and the Birmingham fans really got behind their team throughout the game.  The atmosphere in the away end was slightly flat, especially in the second-half with Reading trailing.

Journey Time home: 2 hours 30 minutes.  We left the ground as soon as the game finished and were back in the car around 10pm.  We drive straight back and arrived home at around 12:30am.

 

I enjoyed my day out in Birmingham.  The ground is quite impressive and the atmosphere inside was very good.  It's just shame that Reading are playing so poorly at the moment as it makes games less enjoyable than they should be!