League Cup - Birmingham Away

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Despite the indignity of being a 'non seed' looking forward to the draw (aviva aviva!) at 9.30 today and getting one of the big boys like Leyton Orient.

Brighton or QPR at home would be great but we're likely to get MK Dons or Yeovil - it seems inevitable. I'm not that hopeful that we'll even get past round 1 but you never know - Bradford did it.

Its Birmingham away

Out in the first round....again

Home to Q.P.R. That's us out

punchdrunk wrote:

Out in the first round....again

To be fair, given our record we'd probably go out in the first round whoever we got. At least with Brum away we might get a bit of cash because they are a 'big' club! Better than getting dumped out by Shrewsbury or someone like that.

Clubs get 45% of gate after costs.  Birminghams first round last year attracted 9000 against Barnet.  Could be looking at I guess anywhere up to £100k if we take alot of supporters ourselves depending on costs

That is the sort of match you are more likely to sneak if you actually turn up, something we have failed to do since the quarter finals of the FA cup. Two non league sides did it to us last year, so why not us?
I do know we are quite shit BTW before anyone points that out.

Iggy wrote:

That is the sort of match you are more likely to sneak if you actually turn up, something we have failed to do since the quarter finals of the FA cup. Two non league sides did it to us last year, so why not us?
I do know we are quite shit BTW before anyone points that out.

I suppose Brum are very likely to field a much weakened side, as they will be concentrating of promotion back to the Premiership, so there is always the possibility of an upset. I just don't think it's likely given our terrible record in the competition.

unless prices reduced significantly then itll be a 4k gate !
birmingham city are skint and fans deserting in droves.
if argyle make more than 35k from this game i'll be amazed.

Probably the best type of draw we could get really. There's a good amount of Argyle fans in the midlands who will go and Birmingham are one of the biggest clubs in the competition at this stage so for us it's a glamour tie. 

I went to St. Andrews on New Years Day in about 87, this was before the ground had be done up and it had the steepest terraces I've ever seen. Seperated from the home fans by some netting!

It was below freezing and there was a biting wind. I've never been so happy for half-time to arrive so I could get a cup of coffee and what was described as a pasty, but in reality was a flat square of unknown meat with a mush of vegetables. Still it kept my hands warm for a while.

We lost 3-2 I think and Birmnigham's (Wayne?) Clarke scored a hat-trick I believe.

It was a lunchtime kick-off and getting back to New St station after the game was fun as there were other away fans arriving/departing/changing trains there and it got quite hairy with trouble kicking off all around, but it was hard to tell who was who!

The Birmingham Zulu Warriors were probably not expecting so many different mobs to be there at the same time, unless of course it was usual for there to be different sets of away fans, and I remember these two huge black guys standing toe to toe throwing huge punches at each other and thinking that they looked like they would give Frank Bruno a run for his money. It later turned out that my gran would've given Frank Bruno a run for his money.

I was only about 17 and had gone to my grans in Nottingham for a couple of weeks and took in a couple of games while I was up there. I used to like the midlands based away games. Stay at my uncles or grans and go by train from Nottingham.

The League Cup doesn't attract big crowds at this stage but I would imagine it would be somewhere like 8-10,000 and we'll get a decent cut of that so it's better than going out to someone else in the first round in front of 2500 I suppose. Although won't half of it go towards the ongoing debt? Or is that only for televised games?

I think that Birmingham was one of the first big away games when we first got into the CCC, I remember the steep sided ground and they had ginger wavey haired ex international whose name escapes me running the show, who was he called? Lovely to watch though, although I think we lost two nil.
The game I am thinking of wasn't actually an Argyle game, I think it was v Arsenal and the player in question was an Arsenal player, we had free tickets from a mate who lives up there, before we got promoted I think.
Just call me statto.

One of the last times I went to St Andrews I was privileged to see one of the "best" football mascots of all time. And the full frontal doesn't do it justice.
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st andrews 1st ground i heard that abysmal song - lets pretend we ve scored a goal

Birmingham are still paying Zigic £60k a week. Some of our first team squad probably don't earn that in a year.

There's always next year.

As ties go this is probably the best you could hope for having been drawn away.Should get a decent crowd and our performance will give an early indication of the season ahead.If it was a saturday I would have gone as its a nice day out by train,and have walked from New Street via the custard factory to the ground many times.However  as usual  I expect that a tea bag will stay longer in the cup  than Argyle.

greensleeves wrote:

As ties go this is probably the best you could hope for having been drawn away.Should get a decent crowd and our performance will give an early indication of the season ahead.If it was a saturday I would have gone as its a nice day out by train,and have walked from New Street via the custard factory to the ground many times.However  as usual  I expect that a tea bag will stay longer in the cup  than Argyle.

Don't know why but in my Argyle watching lifetime we've never done a thing in the League Cup. Doesn't matter if it was one leg or two legs we always seem to get knocked out in the first or second round.

Nowadays it's a good chance to have a bit of a cup run as the bigger clubs don't put out their best sides until about the QFinals.

I know we beat Wimbledon years ago when they were a Premier League side I think, but other than that I'm struggling to remember anything noteworthy.

Man City in the 70,s apparently other then that its as dull as dishwater as per most other cup competitions and Argyle

greensleeves wrote:

As ties go this is probably the best you could hope for having been drawn away.Should get a decent crowd and our performance will give an early indication of the season ahead.If it was a saturday I would have gone as its a nice day out by train,and have walked from New Street via the custard factory to the ground many times.However  as usual  I expect that a tea bag will stay longer in the cup  than Argyle.

That's truly the first time I have heard Birmingham described as "a nice day out by train". Having lived not far from there for many years and spent lots of time there ...... I would generally avoid it like the plague.

Birmingham was the only ground I've visited, parked less than a mile away from the ground & was approached by a group of lads & asked "Do you want us to keep an eye on your car, mister?"

Birmingham - an excellent place for culture, food & the market. After that - a disaster.

Greenjock wrote:

greensleeves wrote:

As ties go this is probably the best you could hope for having been drawn away.Should get a decent crowd and our performance will give an early indication of the season ahead.If it was a saturday I would have gone as its a nice day out by train,and have walked from New Street via the custard factory to the ground many times.However  as usual  I expect that a tea bag will stay longer in the cup  than Argyle.

Don't know why but in my Argyle watching lifetime we've never done a thing in the League Cup. Doesn't matter if it was one leg or two legs we always seem to get knocked out in the first or second round.

Nowadays it's a good chance to have a bit of a cup run as the bigger clubs don't put out their best sides until about the QFinals.

I know we beat Wimbledon years ago when they were a Premier League side I think, but other than that I'm struggling to remember anything noteworthy.

Argyle beat Birmingham,Burnley and QPR,all pretty good quality top flight teams,away from home when we reached the semi's in 1974.And the league cup was regarded as quite important back then,QPR beat Wednesday 8-2 in the previous round.I think Argyle beat Villa and Sheffield United in the run to semi finals 10 years earlier but thats about it,apart from the Wimbledon which was a case of like v like in terms of style in Kemp's reign.Actually,there was a very commendable draw with Arsenal back in the '80's but they won the second leg 1-0,pretty meagre return on the whole.

Not such a money spinner.  Cheap as chips.

Prices for the game as follows

Quote :

Season ticket holders of both clubs*:
Adults (16+): £5
Seniors and students: £3
Under 16s: £1

Non-season ticket holders of both clubs*:
Adults (16+): £8
Seniors and students: £ 4
Under 16s: £1

last time there in the league cup, it was rumoured that blues wanted to drop the admission price, but argo rejected that. outcome... pisspoor crowd.  i think we might see a full house

when are teh commemorative t-shirts coming out?

Mapperley, darling wrote:

last time there in the league cup, it was rumoured that blues wanted to drop the admission price, but argo rejected that. outcome... pisspoor crowd.  i think we might see a full house

I reckon there's more chance of Brent building a decent Stand than there being a St Andrews full house, darling.

Their support isn't great given their catchment area. And they speak funny.