Irish Branch Birmingham City Supporters Club

The irish supporters club was formed by Donal Bourke in the early 2001 and quicky grew over the years.Every season we award a player of our choice with a player of the season award the following player who have won this award are

Tommy Mooney 2002

Gobby Cabbage 2003

Kenny Cunningham 2004

Mario Melchiot 2005

Jermaine pennant 2006

Gary Mcsheffrey 2007

Stephen Kelly 2008

Kevin Phillips 2009

Many of our fans go over to matches so if your a first timer on the site dont hesitate to get in touch about traveling over

Birmingham City F.C.

 The club was formed in September 1875 under the name of Small Heath Alliance by Cricketers wanting to play something together during the winter. The club just played in the Football Alliance  and FA Cup (where the club reached the Semi Finals in 1886, losing out to West Brom 4-0) until the Football League was formed in 1892, where Blues were 'elected' to Division Two. Blues first ever league game was at home to Burslem Port Vale on September 3rd 1892, where they won 5-1 against a Port Vale team who only had 10 men (the other player missed the train from Stoke!). 
 Blues ran away with the league that season, but were not promoted. At that point 'Test Matches' (a form of the play-offs) were used to decide promotion / relegation. Small Heath lost 5-2 in a replay against Newton Heath (nowadays known as Manchester United). They went up the following season  though, and their first Division One match was on September 1st 1894 where they lost 2-1 away at local rivals Aston Villa. Small Heath had two topsy-turvy seasons in the top flight before relegation 
in 1896. 
   
 Small Heath continued to yo-yo from First to Second Division until 1903, when Blues 
 began their first quite long stretch in Division One (Five years until 1908). This period saw 
 Small Heath's first victories against Aston Villa (they hadn't beaten them until September 16th 
 1905 where Blues won 2-0 at Muntz Street). Small Heath had their highest league finish so
 far (7th in Division One) in 1905, and also changed their name to Birmingham in 1906. 
 Also Birmingham moved from the playing grounds at Muntz Street to the newly 
 constructed St. Andrews Stadium off Garrison Lane. When Birmingham got relegated  in 
 1908, they didn't return to the top flight until 1921. This dismal period nearly saw Birmingham 
 drop out of the Football League in 1910, when they finished bottom of Division Two. 
   
When Birmingham returned to Division One in 1921, a period of 18 years began when Birmingham didn't drop out of the top flight, their longest period amongst English Football's Elite so far in their history. Birmingham usually finished around mid-table (their average position during this period was 14th out of 22 teams). It was during this period when Birmingham reached their first FA Cup final in 1931. After beating Liverpool 2-0, Port Vale 2-0, Watford 3-0, Chelsea 3-0 (after a 2-2 draw) and Sunderland 2-0 they walking on the Wembley turf for the first time in their history. There they succumbed 2-1 to newly promoted West Brom. They wouldn't return to Wembley for another 25 years. In 1939 they were relegated to Division Two after a season which saw Blues win more games than the season previous to that!! Of course the Second World War then intervened and league football did not restart until 1946. The FA Cup restarted in 1945-6 though. Blues (now renamed Birmingham City) reached the Cup Semi-Final against Derby. Blues drew 1-1 at Hillsborough, which sent the match to a mid-week replay at Maine Road. Over 80,000 turned up to watch the match. The Government was so alarmed by this (during therebuilding of the country after war) that it banned weeknight matches! After 90 minutes it was 0-0, but then Ted Duckhouse broke a leg, and with no substitutions allowed, Derby went on to win 4-0 and go to Wembley. Blues also reached the cup semis again in 1951, when they lost to a Stanley Matthews inspired Blackpool. Meantime in the league, Blues were again yo-yoing from First to Second Division,winning the second division title in 1948 and returning to Division Two in 1950. In November 1954 Blues were a mid-table Division Two team. Arthur Turner then took over as manager.Two emphatic home victories: 7-1 vs. Port Vale and 9-1 vs. Liverpool saw Blues start a dramatic rise up the table. Near the end of the season Blues required 5 points from three games for promotion, and all of these games were away from home. Blues won at Hull and then drew 2-2 with Liverpool at Anfield to set up a dramatic last day. Blues required all two points from their trip to Belle Vue, Doncaster. Blues did it and in some style too. They brushed Doncaster aside 5-1, and just topped the table on Goal Average. It 
was the only time in the season when Blues were on top of the table as well! The following season Blues attained their highest league finish to date, 6th in Division One and also reached the FA Cup final again.They were red-hot favourites for the cup, but were beaten 3-1 by a Don Revie inspired Manchester City. Blues then went through another period which saw mid-table first division football. In 1963, Birmingham City attained their only Domestic Trophy to date when they beat Aston Villa 3-1 on aggregate to win the League Cup. It is interesting to note that during this period Blues became the first professional English club to play in the Inter Cities Fairs Cup (now the UEFA Cup) where they reached the final twice in a row, but lost on both occasions. Despite this, Birmingham City became the first english club (and only english club to date) to win a game away at Inter Milan. Birmingham City returned to Division Two in 1965 and didn't return to Division One until 1972. They reached two cup semis during this period in 1968 and 1972, but lost both (to WBA and Leeds respectively (it also must be added that both these clubs went on to win the cup)). 

  
   In the 70's Blues returned to top flight football for another seven years. Stars like Bob Latchford
and Trevor Francis became idols at the club, both of them helping to win promotion in 1972. For those seven years Blues played some exciting football, and although not winning any trophies, gained some memorable results, such as the 3-2 home win over Villa in April 1976, the 3-2 win at Liverpool  in January 1978 and a 5-1 win over Manchester United in November 1978.

By the late 70's though, players were being sold to bring money into the club (such as Trevor Francis's £1 million move to N. Forest in 1979), and Blues were relegated in 1979. They bounced back immediately though under the management of Jim Smith. A 3-3 draw at home to Notts County on the  final day of the season saw them stay above Chelsea and get back into Division One. The first season back saw near rivals Aston Villa take the first division title and the following season saw themtake the European Title. Villa came to St. Andrew's in December 1982. Blues fans were 
suffering taunts from Villa fans about their European success and it gave Blues fans a great boost to see Blues stuff Villa 3-0 in what became known as "The Boxing Day Massacre". 

The rest of the 80's were quite dreadful though. It saw Blues nose-dive out of the First in 1986 and into the Third Division for the first  time in history in 1988. Blues were going through financial trouble at thetime and also a management merry-go-round, so no consistancy was in the club whatsoever. A turn around began in 1991 when Blues won the Layland DAF Cup at Wembley. Although regarded as a 'mickey mouse cup' by others, it gave Blues a real boost and the following season Blues won 
promotion back to Division Two (which now became Division One as the Premier League began). 
Blues struggled though, and nearly went straight back down. In 1993, David Sullivan and the Gold 
Brothers took over the club and began vital cash input. In December 1993 after a disappointing start 
to the season in which Terry Cooper resigned, the irrepressable Barry Fry came to the club asmanager. Blues were unfortunately relegated on goal difference, despite being undefeated in 
their last seven games of the season.
  
   Blues made a hard job of an immediate return to Division One. With only one automatic promotion place available, Blues seemed to be heading to the play-offs after Christmas as they appeared to have lost their form and confidence after losing their 25 match unbeaten league run. This is where Barry Fry came into his own. He boosted confidence in the camp and Blues began a run of great run of results, mainly against clubs around them, to grab the second division title on the final day of the season. Blues also took 50,000 fans to Wembley to see them win the Auto Windscreens Shield (the equivalent of the Layland DAF Cup). Despite a poor match, it was a great day out for Blues fans. In 1995-6 Blues despite finishing only 15th, claimed their highest league finish since the season they were relegated from the top flight last. Trevor Francis was introduced as manager in 1996-7. In his first season, he brought in a change of staff and players and this showed on their league position, 10th. The next season Blues started well, but then went through a period of bad form and many called for Francis to leave the club. After an unfortunate 1-0 defeat at WBA, when Blues did everything bar score, Blues form began to pick up and from then to the end of the season Blues only lost three league games. They missed out on the play-offs by only drawing at home on the last day 0-0 against Charlton. The following season Blues played some exceptional football away from home (including a 7-1 win at Oxford), but there home form wasn't quite good enough to gain automatic promotion, so Blues went into the play-offs. Blues lost 1-0 at Watford and won 1-0 at St. Andrews. The heart breaking penalty shootout that decided it went Watford's way though. 
The 1999/2000 season was one that most bluenoses felt was the one where the blues could finally 
realise their potential and make that step into the FA Carling Premiership where they could pit their wits against some of the best teams in the world. This was helped by the record summer signing of Stan Lazaridis from West Ham. After an injury hit season, blues finished fifth in the league,amassed 77 points and qualified for the play offs. Unfortunately they lost against fourth 
placed Barnsley at the semi-final stage.
  
At the start of the 2000/2001 season, blues broke their transfer record again with the 2.5 million acquisition of Geoff Horsfield from Fulham.

The season will long live in the memory of Bluenoses after they saw their side reach the final of a major domestic competition for the first time in 38 years. Blues met Liverpool in the Worthington Cup Final at the Millenium stadium on 25th February 2001. Trevor Francis's brave-hearts  came so close to a major upset after Darren Purse's injury time penalty cancelled out Robbie Fowler's opener to take the game into extra time. Blues should have been awarded another spot kick during the extra 30 minutes but the referee waved the appeals 
after Andrew Johnson was brought down by Sammi Hyypia. In the end it was the young striker who made the headlines when he missed the penalty in theshoot out to give vicyory to the Merseysiders.
Soon after their cup final heroics, blues went on a disastrous run on 10 league games without victory that ruined any chances of automatic promotion. Another penalty shoot out defeat at the hands of Preston in the play off semi final put pay to blues' premiership dream and condemned them to another season in the first division. In October the following season, Trevor Francis departed from the helm and was replaced 2 months later by another former blues plater in the for of Steve Bruce. He brought with him former Wigan boss John Benson as general manager and Mark Bowen as first team coach. Bruce transformed the blues squad and just 6 months after taking charge of the club he led them to play off success. Youngster Darren Carter converted the deciding penalty kick against Norwich City at the Millenium stadium to seal a place back in the top flight for the first time in 16 years.

Within the last couple of years much redevelopment has been undertaken at St Andrew's, with both the Main Stand and the Railway End being redeveloped. These stands now offer modern facilities and refreshments, and are complemented by the linked Kop and Tilton Road stands. The Kop and Tilton Road stands were only opened in 1994, and in their daythey won several awards for design and supporters' facilities.The Railway Stand is now a two-tier, 8,000 all seater stand, and has pushed the overall capacity up to an impressive 30,000. Away fans are also located in this new stand, with the top tier allocated to families, and the bottom tier to the visiting support. This sounds a little odd, but works really well.

Capacity: 30,200 (all seated)
Address: St Andrews Ground, Birmingham B9 4NH
Main Telephone No: 0121-772-0101
Fax No: 0121-766-7866
Pitch Size: 115 x 75 yards
Club Nickname: The Blues
Shirt Sponsors: F and C Investments
Home Kit Colours: Royal Blue & White
Away Kit Colours: black shirt with yellow trim 
   


   DIRECTIONS:
   From The North:
   Take M6 to Junction 6.

   From The South:
   Exit M6 at Junction 6 and take the A38(M) Aston Expressway. Leave at the second exit at roundabout
   along Dartmouth Middleway. After 1 1/4 miles turn left into St. Andrew's Street. Car Parking is available
   in the surrounding streets.

   From The East:
   Approach via M6.