A strange kind of Saturday

they are on television at the request of Sky playing Birmingham City as a spoiler for the visit of Aston Villa to Newcastle which is on Setanta.

I wonder if the fee that Birmingham City receive for the game covers the losses that there will be by moving the game from a Saturday afternoon? How many home and away fans will decide not to venture out on a cold November night eventhough it is a local derby who would have got their fix at 3pm on the Saturday?

Although TV coverage is good these days and for the Premier league brings in vast sums of money, for the rest of football it is again the team follower who is inconvenienced by the switching of fixtures from the published list, often at relatively short notice with no thought for the life blood of the game.

After the draw at Southampton on Tuesday, the City players had a couple of days off before beginning their preparations for the visit to St. Andrews in what is for both clubs an important game.