Birmingham City 1 - West Bromwich Albion 0

Brendan Clegg:

Well I’m afraid that was dreadful. Truly as bad as it gets.

Somehow a win would’ve given us an outside chance to salvage our season but we were limp, predictable, terrible on the ball and totally lacking in ideas. If you can’t get up for these occasions then what’s the point?

It was a terrible game and I don’t think either team deserved their nil let alone a winner. Nothing in it apart from one bad call by the ref when we had a clear penalty for handball in the opening minutes, and then the right call when we conceded a penalty for similar.

I can’t even go into much detail. Our midfield couldn’t pass and we lazily relied on crap long throws and crapper set pieces. Our forwards were totally toothless but it was basically Val ball. I can think of one rare moment in the first half when we actually found Grant to feet and his touch was so poor - summed us up.

Don’t allow Bruce off lightly. TGH wasn’t great but Mowatt was awful and one of the main reasons we kept giving the ball away. Drop TGH in there instead and at least try and keep the ball. When we were 1-0 down he took off old trampoline feet. Why? He’s still our top scorer and it’s a game we have to win. Take a CB off off and go for it man!

Exactly the same with Reach for Townsend. Get a CB off if you want to do that. Most of that starting 11 were not away on international duty. What were we doing for 2 weeks. There was no plan, no strategy. Just rubbish. 3-5-2 is marginally better than the 3-4-3 but there are still many flaws he hasn’t addressed.

I know the chopping and changing manager has to stop but we made a mistake with Ismael not getting rid sooner when better options were available. Bruce hasn’t done it and probably doesn’t need it enough any more. Farke is available. I’d do the deal now if we can.

• SJ - 5 has any wba goalie kicked it out of play more than him?
• Ajayi - 6 made the game’s only decent bit of quality but nobody got in the end of it.
• Bartley - 5 Can’t pass forward so it kills us when we don’t have a midfielder who can have it off him. Spare and pointless.
• Clarke - 6 Probably our best player today. Solid and decent feet.
• Furlong- 4 Wasn’t playing football was he?
• TGH - 4 Couldn’t get into it again but needs better service.
• Livermore - 5 Did his job okay but nothing around him. Can see it visibly frustrating him.
• Mowatt - 3 Offers very little and often takes the coward’s pass.
• Townsend - 4 Not great but without someone to look after the ball he and Furlong do a lot of totally pointless running.
• Robinson - 4 The odd moment but we barely find him, a combination of him hiding and our midfield being incapable of passing it quickly.
• Grant - 3 It was not a vintage performance of pressing and relentless running. Meek. Was he injured? Surely worth leaving on otherwise?

Subs - Was there a plan or was it all just a bit of chaos? Carroll should’ve scored but none of them made sense to me.