Birmingham Sports Holdings sent clear message as Birmingham City loanees bid farewell

The curtain dropped on another frustrating campaign for Birmingham City as a pair of long-range strikes from Blackburn saw Rovers stroll to a 2-1 victory. John Buckley and Ben Brereton-Diaz found opposite corners of Neil Etheridge’s goal to seize control of the game in the first half.

Blues rallied in the second, with Kristian Pedersen scoring after surging through the visitors’ defence on what will be his final appearance for the club – but an equaliser could not be found.

Here’s what stood out an afternoon that ended with a fan protest against the owners.

Neil Etheridge could not be blamed for either of the Rovers goals, indeed the 32-year-old stood up well to anything Blackburn put within his reach, denying Ryan Hedges on a couple of occasions. However, another two piled on to the goals against tally mean Blues have shipped 75 for the season, on a par with the 2019-2020 campaign which fell apart after the season was stopped because of the pandemic.

But you’d have to go back all the way to the dire relegation season 1988/1989 to find a campaign with a worse defensive record. Garry Pendrey’s embattled side shipped 76 that year. Blues have registered 14 clean sheets, which isn’t too bad – but when they have leaked goals, it’s rarely only one a game. That’s clearly something that is going to have to be addressed in the summer.

Blues finished the match with two 17-year-olds and one 16-year-old on the pitch – and for me Jordan James was their man of the match.

When he had the ball the midfielder showed drive and a desire to play forward as much as possible. When he didn’t he used his mobility to get around the park, used his body and battled for possession like a physically-mature Championship centre-mid. It’s been quite