Stuck In The Middle

First derby day of the season. Over the last two years, our local derby encounters have progressively shrunk from six matches, to four matches, to just two this time round (unless you consider Stoke to be a derby. Personally, I see it as more of an irritation); either way, it vastly increases the importance and significance that's piled onto the occasion.

The titanic struggle between Birmingham and the Black Country that's been played out on football pitches since 1878 has, in recent times, been won by the Brummies a little too often for our liking. Since we've begun to enjoy a bit of superiority over them in the last season or two, we've also acquired a taste for not losing to them. It's no longer considered an option. So we were put through the wringer as a nerve-wracking match today swung agonisingly from looking like defeat, to looking like victory, to a (probably fair) draw.

So we didn't get beaten, and we're still Pride of the Midlands up in sixth place. There have been far, far, far, far, FAR worse days to be a Baggie.