Football Blues

If you are not interested in football you can stop reading now if you want, just take a look at the photo, and move on.

Having said that, I'm not all that interested in football really, I enjoy the odd match on TV, went to Cardiff for the Olympic game GB v Korea, and have always supported Hull City, that being the team of the town I was born and brought up in.

Tom is the football fanatic in our family, he, along with the rest of Ann's family, is an avid Aston Villa supporter. He holds a season ticket and has an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things football related, not just Villa. Recently he has been travelling around with his mates watching Birmingham City pre-season friendlies, they being Blues fans, and today I went with him to St Andrew's Stadium, home of Birmingham City, to watch a friendly against Hull City. Bring a Villa fan, and therefore arch-rival of Blues, Tom always sits in the opposite end to his friends and today we sat in the away block to support Hull, in the presence of a surprising large number of other City fans.

Unfortunately Blues were the better side, especially during the first half, and won the match 2-1. Tom says this is because Birmingham have had more pre-season games than Hull, we'll see what happens when the season starts for real, although Hull and Blues will not meet again this year as they are in different leagues (Hull obtained promotion to the premiership at the end of last season, Birmingham are in the Championship).

I didn't take my camera to the match as away fans are frisked prior to entry to the ground and cameras are not allowed, though I did have my phone, and took one or two photos with that, but I decided on this picture I took of the stadium from Bordesley Station rather than the typical pictures of half-empty stands. Bordesley is only ever open when Birmingham City are playing at home, being the nearest station to the stadium, as such is it slightly neglected. It reminded me of the old Boothferry Park ground where Hull used to play when I was a lad that had its own station that let out onto the stands.