Birmingham City v QPR

TOUCHLINE TALK
JOHN EUSTACE
Good evening and welcome to St. Andrew’s
for our televised Sky Bet Championship
fixture with Queens Park Rangers.
Tonight’s match is dedicated to Help Harry Help
Others, an incredible cancer support charity set
up by an inspirational boy - Harry Moseley. Harry’s
story is extremely moving and although his life was
cruelly cut short at the age of 11, his memory lives
on through his campaign.
For someone so young to be going through
something so unimaginable, and still have the
selflessness and kindness to think of how he can
help others, is a testament to who he was. We are
honoured to be able to support Help Harry Help
Others this evening and I know you will all get
behind what is a very worthy cause.
Turning our attention to football matters, I would
like to extend my welcome to Gareth Ainsworth,
his players, staff and the supporters of QPR. He
knows the club inside out and his teams are always
difficult to play against. Their victories have come
away from home so far this season and with their
late equaliser on Tuesday night they will be buoyed
by that result. So, we are very aware of the threats
they will pose.
We head into the game off the back of two
positive performances and really harsh results.
We certainly did not deserve to lose at Watford
last weekend. To go there and limit them to very
little all afternoon was very pleasing. We created
some big chances and if we take one of those, we
put ourselves in a really commanding position.
We defended our box extremely well and the only
disappointment is that we were unable to see the
game out after the red card. I expect us to defend
with 10 men as we did with 11 and, unfortunately,
they scored from the one occasion that we did not
make first contact from a cross. There were lots
of positives to take from the performance and we
quickly picked ourselves up and looked ahead to
Preston North End.
They were full of momentum having won
five straight games, but I have to say we were
outstanding on the night and showed a different
side of the game. At Watford, we had to be solid in
our shape and tough to play against but at Preston,
we showed that we can really play. We dominated
with and without the ball, played some fantastic
football and were the better team throughout.
We got into some really dangerous positions and
created openings which needed to be finished off
with the final pass or shot.
Jay Stansfield scores another great goal and
the only frustration is the manner in which we gift
them their goals. It was a really tough one to take
on Tuesday night but as I have said before, we are
not victims, we are fighters, and we have to keep
working because we are certainly doing a lot of the
right things at the moment.
This group has made big strides already this
season and we will continue to get better as
the weeks and months progress. We are eight
games in, and I have seen enough in the start we
have made, to know we are on the right track.
Sometimes you do not get the result you deserve,
that is football, but that will not stop us from
believing in what we are doing and working even
harder to pick up points. Teams know they are in
for a game when they play us, and it has to be that
way all season.
Hopefully, if we can find that cutting edge when
we are on top and continue to work as hard as
the players are working, we will get the results to
match our performances.
Thank you, as always, for your fantastic support.
Keep Right On,
John Eustace
8 | BLUES NEWS BIRMINGHAM CITY V QUEENS PARK RANGERS