Despite a storming second half comeback and an atmosphere not matched at the BG for some considerable time a point just wasn't good enough, says Sam Allardyce...
Sam: Just before half-time you could be forgiven for thinking "here we go again". But your team showed real character in the second half, you absolutely stormed them and perhaps should have won in the end?
Well we certainly had the opportunity to win it right at the death, I think. Obviously we had some opportunities before then to get a little bit closer sooner, rather than when the penalty came along. But ther first half you've got the unbelievable suicidal commitment that we showed, from my point of view.
When we set out to win a game of football you have to be aware of what the opposition do and what they don't do. What we did was play straight into Birmingham's hands in the first half. We punished ourselves by giving the ball away cheaply and then two great finished from Mutch and Marlon King. But even after after all that the recovery should have started with Vaz Te's goal.
The recovery should have been in the dressing room, at 2-1. Then we come out all-guns-blazing like we did to try and go on and win it. But there wasn't enough determination in the team by the players who defended that corner to say, "these boys are not going to score here; I'm going to lay anything on the line to make sure they don't score. If I have to get my teeth kicked out or if I have to get my jaw broken they aint going to score".
Unfortunately we didn't really do that because it wasn't a great ball in, it wasn't a great shot that went in and we just didn't deal with it properly. So we committed suicide yet again. After than we said, "look, if you carry on playing the ball around the back that slowly then all Birmingham are going to do is sit there and say, "well go on then, how clever are you at breaking us down?"" Well we couldn't do that in the first half so we had to get the ball forward quickly, we had to commit more men forward, we had to show a lot more tempo and a lot more quality in the final third - and I don't think the team's sustained so much pressure, for so long, at home in the entire season.
It started from the beginning of the first half and lasted right to the very end but unfortunately we couldn't find the extra goal to win it for us. That would have made a magnificent difference - not just from a points point of view, but when you get a victory like that coming from behind you then become unstoppable, I think. It gives you so much confidence, so much pleasure. Unfortunately we couldn't find the winner in the last minute; I think it was Henri Lansbury?
We feel hard done by the challenge after 30 seconds of the second half by [Peter] Ramage on Lansbury - and we feel aggrieved by the challenge by [Steven] Caldwell pulling on [Carlton] Cole's arm when he's about to score. So if the referee gives the Ramage penalty 30 seconds into the second half and we score, that's 3-2. You don't know how the game's going to go on from there, but the way we started that would have given us - as well as the fans - an even bigger lift. But we didn't get it and we've paid the price for a sloppy first half yet again. Whilst it's a magnificent comeback it's still only one point and not three - and three is what we wanted.
Was a point at home enough to keep you in the hunt for automatic promotion?
It depends on what Reading do tomorrow and then what happens with Southampton v Reading before we go into the Brighton game. If Reading slip up tomorrow and then Southampton beat Reading that's our only way back, really. At the end of that we've still got to go four games, four wins.
Given the way you played at Barnsley were you disappointed with the way they played in the first half?
Well what they did was try to play the same way they did on Friday - and Birmingham didn't let us. That was the difference. What they should have realised, after a very short period of time, is that we cannot play this way, we cannot afford to make the sort of mistakes we did against Reading. That we did and unfortunately Birmingham punished us to the hilt with the quality of their finishing.
Then, like I said, after we'd overcome that disappointment we produced suicidal defending on a corner. A straighforward corner which we practise week in and week out. We didn't get the header on the first ball, but we should have closed down the lad shooting - or we should have cleared that shot. it wasn't really a great shot and it just bounced in the back of the net. At that stage I'm thinking, "well, will these lads hold it together?"
[In the second half] we played a different way, we played with a diamond and with one in the hole. We pushed our full backs on because there was no fear anymore. We could go and play without any fear because we were losing 3-1 and we had nothing to lose. Because we started the second half so well and the fans got behind us we created constant pressure on Birmingham that nearly paid off. But it didn't quite.
Did you watch the penalty?
Yes. I watched the penalty and obviously with Mark Noble being off, who's got six from six, I had every confidence in Vaz because of what he's done for us since he come. He's gone and scored what is it, six now? Six in what, eight, nine games? So I was really pleased because our strikers have started to find the back of the net.
All I said to the players today was, "if you come out of this game with a clean sheet, you'll win this game today, I'm convinced about that". But unfortunately, I must have been talking Swahili...
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