Birmingham City’s poor form at the start of the new Championship season continued after they suffered a 2-0 defeat against Sheffield Wednesday in the latest league match. The performance of the players disappointed manager Lee Clark, who said that the club stand no chance of recovering if the players continued with this kind of a performance especially in the second half. Clark was extremely happy with the performance in the first half, but there was complete capitulation in the second period. May scored the opening goal of the match in the 67th minute, while Helan’s goal just one minute before injury time sealed three points for the away team.
The defeat means that Birmingham have taken only one victory this season and have suffered three defeats from the seven matches. They lie just two places above the relegation zone. After having avoided relegation only narrowly in the last two seasons, Clark does not seem to be faring much better this time around. He has been struggling to make changes to the squad due to the financial restrictions, but the manager says that it is not an excuse for current players to perform poorly. The manager has recalled that Birmingham allowed Leeds United to get back into the game in the a similar fashion after dominating in the first half.
“You cannot play so well in the first half and be so different in the second period. This is something we’ve got to address very quickly. We allowed Leeds back into the game in the closing stages and it occurred again against Wednesday. We were the dominant team in the first half and then the second half things changed too dramatically for us,” said the Birmingham boss. The club with no wins in the last five matches travel to Norwich, who are second in the table, this weekend.