Ipswich Town v Blues preview  The battle of the Blues takes place at 3 pm in East Anglia on Saturday, and Blues Muse will be there. One of Blues' last season favorites Guirane N'Daw will line up for Ipswich, but faces a Blues team that has recently found it's stubborn streak. Just as well, as the goals have dried up of late with the loss of Marlon King et al.   Blues 1 Leeds United 0  A second half strike from Hayden Mullins gave Blues the 3 points, and with another two straight wins the team and fans are left wondering might have been had we picked up a few more points during the season. Yep, all right, every team in the division are probably thinking the same thing!  Match reports   Beyond the Far Post It's been a long, long, long time coming - nearly two years in fact - but John is back with another rambling missive regarding the finale of the 2012/13 season. It involves Clark Kent, perhaps, but to see for yourself go here.   Hong Kong Foo Yeung Blues owner Carson Yeung continues to  dwell in captivity while Blues fans the world over - all 27 of us - pray for a change of ownership soon just so we're ready sooner than later for the 2013/14 season.  Stay tuned for the next enthralling episode of 'Foo Yeung on toast'!   Football League rummage sale It seems that nobody wants to buy the club, and at this rate Irma Postlethwaite of Hinckley is going to be the new owner.  I just hope she has plenty of money for new players stored away in that box under her bed.     John Baker as you can see, is . . . Beyond The Far Post
Birmingham City FC news
For Birmingham City news feeds in one place go to NewsNow
Sky	Sporting Life	Football365
BBC	Vital Football	Soccernet
The Telegraph	MyFootballNews	ClubCall
Birmingham Mail	TeamTalk	Yahoo
The Guardian	The official BCFC site	EatSleepFootball
Express and Star	Bleacher Report	Fans FC

Fan forums
Joys and Sorrows	Small Heath Alliance	Blues Talk
	BCFC Free Forums
Blogs and fan websites
Joys and Sorrows	Blues Ladies	Small Heath Alliance
B31 Blues	A Voice in the Wind	Made In Brum
	Long, Long, Road
Singing the Blues	Tilton Strugglers	Tired and Weary
Supporter's Clubs
Paris	Redditch	Sweden
Ireland	Norway	United States west
Blues Muse answers opposition fan questions
	Everton Dec 2010
Sunderland Oct 2009	Chelsea Aug 2007	Liverpool May 2004

  Contact me to suggest another site or report a broken link

  Other Footy Links

Match reports by the Birmingham Mail

FRIENDLIES
JULY 2012
Sat, 21st	A		Borussia Mönchengladbach	D	2-2	Davies, Asante
Tues, 24th	A		Shrewsbury Town	W	2-1	Ambrose, Zigic
Sat, 28th	A		Cheltenham Town	L	0-1
Tues, 31st	A		Bury	W	5-1	Hughes og, Lovenkrands 2, King, Burke
AUGUST 2012
Sat, 4th	A		Plymouth Argyle	W	5-0	Redmond 2, Lovenkrands 2, Burke
Sat, 11th	H		Royal Antwerp	L	1-3	Morrison
Tues, 14th	H		Barnet League Cup, Round 1	W	5-1	King pen, Caldwell, Ambrose, Lovenkrands, Elliot
Sat, 18th	H		Charlton Athletic	D	1-1	Zigic
Tues, 21st	A		Sheffield Wednesday	L	2-3	Zigic, King pen
Sat, 25th	A		Watford	L	0-2
Tues, 28th	A		Coventry City  Televised League Cup, Round 2	L	2-3	Lovenkrands, Spector
SEPTEMBER 2012
Sat, 1st	H		Peterborough	W	1-0	Olejnik og
Sat, 15th	A		Nottingham Forest	D	2-2	Mullins, King
Tues, 18th	H		Bolton Wanderers	W	2-1	Lita, King pen
Sat, 22nd	H		Barnsley  Televised	L	0-5
Sat, 29th	A		Brighton	W	1-0	Burke
OCTOBER 2012
Tues, 2nd	A		Cardiff City	L	1-2	Lita
Sat, 6th	H		Huddersfield Town	L	0-1
Sat, 20th	H		Leicester City	D	1-1	Lovenkrands
Tues, 23rd	A		Milwall	D	3-3	King 3
Sat, 27th	A		Leeds United	W	1-0	Lita
NOVEMBER 2012
Sat, 3rd	H		Ipswich Town	L	0-1
Tues, 6th	H		Bristol City	W	2-0	Burke, King
Sat, 10th	A		Blackburn Rovers	D	1-1	King
Sat, 17th	H		Hull City	L	2-3	Morrison, King
Sat, 24th	A		Derby County  Televised	L	2-3	King, Lovenkrands
Tues, 27th	A		Blackpool	D	1-1	Davies
Fri, 30th	H		Middlesbrough	W	3-2	King 2, 1 pen, Elliott
DECEMBER 2012
Sat, 8th	A		Wolverhampton Wanderers	L	0-1
Sat, 15th	H		Crystal Palace	D	2-2	Zigic, Diop
Sat, 22nd	H		Burnley	D	2-2	Davies, Zigic
Wed, 26th	A		Barnsley	W	2-1	Davies 2
Sat, 29th	A		Bolton Wanderers	L	1-3	Zigic
JANUARY 2013
Tues, 1st	H		Cardiff City	L	0-1
Sat, 5th	A		Leeds United FA Cup, Third Round	D	1-1	Elliott
Sat, 12th	A		Huddersfield Town	D	1-1	Reilly
Tues, 15th	H		Leeds United FA Cup, Third Round replay	L	1-2	Elliott
Sat, 19th	H		Brighton	D	2-2	Caldwell, Zigic
Sat, 26th	A		Burnley	W	2-1	Davies, King
FEBRUARY 2013
Sat, 2nd	H		Nottingham Forest	W	2-1	Burke 2
Sat, 9th	A		Charlton Athletic	D	1-1	Elliott
Sat, 16th	H		Watford	L	0-4
Tues, 19th	H		Sheffield Wednesday	D	0-0
Sat, 23rd	A		Peterborough	W	2-0	Zigic, Burke
MARCH 2013
Sat, 2nd	A		Hull City	L	2-5	Lovenkrands, Burke
Tues, 5th	H		Blackpool	D	1-1	Davies
Sat, 9th	H		Derby County	W	3-1	Thomas 2, Redmond
Sat, 16th	A		Middlesbrough	W	1-0	Zigic
Fri, 29th	A		Crystal Palace	W	4-0	Redmond, Zigic, Morrison, Ferguson
APRIL 2013
Mon, 1st	H		Wolverhampton Wanderers	L	2-3	Elliot 2, 1 pen
Sat, 6th	H		Milwall	D	1-1	Thomas
Fri, 12th	A		Leicester City	D	2-2	Zigic, Burke pen
Tues, 16th	A		Bristol City	W	1-0	Elliott
Sat, 20th	H		Leeds United	W	1-0	Mullins
Sat, 27th	A		Ipswich Town			@ 3 pm
MAY 2013
Sat, 4th	H		Blackburn Rovers			@ 12:45 pm
Confirm the kick-off times  |  Tickets

Updated Friday the 26th of April, 2013

I welcome links to other 'appropriate' footy related sites on a reciprocal basis only.
To do this, place a link on your site to this site, then . . .

  E-mail the URL of your site
  Include the URL on your site where I will find the link to BluesMuse.com.
  If your link cannot be found or your site is 'inappropriate' your request will be ignored, otherwise it will appear right away, and I will be in touch via e-mail.

  As a Birmingham City fan getting web savvy by designing and managing my business sites it was a logical step to produce a Blues site of some description. The only rule was that it had to be a little different.

You'll find my personal perspectives in the form of 'Beyond the Far Post' plus some additional interesting features, but don't expect daily bulletins from Wast Hills or St. Andrews. It is however ALL BIRMINGHAM CITY FC, and as I'm a photographer, with my own images of course.

Lastly, please get in touch via e-mail if you have some comments.

Keep right on.

John Baker.

JOURNEY OF A BLUES 'SUFFERER'
John Baker, a personal story

  Born in '51 [1900's] and raised in Warwickshire orphanages, I didn't pay too much attention to football which was mainly because I couldn't play as well as I'd have liked. At an orphanage in Solihull we played a lot of football, and England was my team . . . even got the kit via endless box tops from Kellogg's 'Special K'.  Boy, I must have looked good!

MY FIRST LEAGUE GAME
Around the age of 12 I started to get more interested and a friend of my Dad's - a ViIla fan I 'spose - took me to my first professional game. It was a Division One encounter between the Aston Villa and Fulham. Villa won I think, and I seem to recall that Fulham had Johnny Haynes in their side.  The date must have been around April, 1964.

CHOOSING A TEAM . . . WHAT IS A BOY TO DO?
I was living in a Nuneaton orphanage at the time, and was fond of the city of Birmingham, which combined with my love of the colour blue led to you know what. Later that year in November, I was able to persuade said gentleman to take me to St. Andrews.  We stood on the Tilton Road end with most folk around smoking, coughing and spluttering, then the Blues team trotted out and right away I was a supporter for life. The tobacco smoke, the grey macs, the flat caps, and six goals that went in against us weren't exactly what dreams were made of but I was still hooked.

IT WAS ONLY NATURAL
As did most kids during that period in history, I had the rattle, the scarf, the rosette, the autograph book - some player signatures from the late sixties are reproduced here - and a wide-eyed fascination with Birmingham City. I got out of school in 1966, lived in Sutton Coldfield and spots around Brum for the next 9 years and rarely missed a game. Memorable times during that period were Trevor Francis' 4 goals v Bolton, FA Cup 6th round wins v Chelsea and Arsenal, and the FA Cup semi finals v Albion and Leeds United. The 1-0 win at Orient that won promotion was also a major highlight, and I can still clearly see Bob Latchford nodding in that corner at the near post.

There were also many, many memorable league games - especially a few Tuesday night 6-goal extravaganzas - and a ton of fun on the Tilton week after week, year after year. It was also the spot where Trevor Philips and I added the "ever more" harmony to the end of "We'll support you ever more" . . . well, it seemed like we invented it at the time.

FIRST TASTE OF TRAGEDY
During the season of 1966/67 we managed to claw our way to the League Cup semi-final, and were hot favorites to go through to Wembley - the first League Cup final held at that hallowed venue - as we were facing a third division team, Queens Park Rangers. We were doing well in the second division at the time.
The first leg was at St. Andrews, and we led at half time. However, the emerging talent at QPR - including Rodney Marsh and Les Allen - blossomed to win the the tie 4-1 and I was cut in half as the miserable spectacle unfolded.

FURTHER LOSS
OK, OK, by loss I mean I left Brummagem to live in Wales and I barely saw the Blues 'live' again. One day though, through my work as a school photographer in North Wales, I met a primary school Headmaster who was also a football league referee. Soooooo, I struck up a deal that he would call me when he was chosen for a game at St. Andrews, and I would write a feature for the Caernarfon and Denbigh Herald. It was December of 1981 when I got the call for the game v Ipswich, and the words and pictures of 'Day in the Life of a Referee' are reproduced here. I took along my neighbours Iwan and Elfyn Hughes whom I photographed with various players. My own 'highlight' was in the Ref's dressing room prior to the game when Bobby Robson and Jim Smith came in with their team sheets. I took pictures and just had to tell Jim that I was actually a Blues fan.  At this point Robson went beserk because fans aren't allowed anywhere near the Ref before a game.  Oops!  Well, I failed because we lost anyway.

THE ULTIMATE TRAGEDY
During this period, 1975 to be exact, we reached my third FA Cup semi-final as a fan and were drawn against Second Division Fulham.  We were in the First Division at the time. We were expected to win with a team containing the likes of Trevor Francis, Joe Gallagher, Alan Campbell, Howard Kendall, John Roberts, Dave Latchford, Bob Hatton, Gordon Taylor, Malcolm Page, Kenny Burns and co, but Fulham survived and the tie went to a replay. So there I was with my ear glued to the transistor radio in far-flung Talsarnau, North Wales, when Fulham scored in the last minute of extra time of the replay to go through to the FA Cup final. What an appalling night that was for Birmingham City fans everywhere.

EVEN FURTHER LOSS IN A DISTANT SENSE
I was then off to America and condemned to twiddling the knobs on my short-wave radio for a few years. Back in the UK I'd often heard, at about 4:20 p.m. every Saturday, the words, "We now welcome World Service listeners", and I was now one of those distant faithful.  Trouble was, the Blues rarely got a mention, and one would often lose the transmission because of static.

THE ROLLER COASTER and the DIGITAL AGE
In the early 90's Blues had a pair of 'minor cup' successes plus relegation to the dreaded Third Division, and I all but missed those days. Then in 1997 something called the 'internet' came into my life, so I thought I'd type in 'Birmingham City FC'. Terrific loike, now I had my team back.
I'd rather be at the games, but it's better than nothing plus I've made many Blues friends on the various Blues fan forums over the years.

AND FINALLY
Well, that's me story so far loike, our kid, innit?  Except for the League Cup win v Arsenal its been a pretty barren 50 years of support for the Blues, but one always has hope that better things are just around the corner.  I'm pretty sure that supporters from Tottenham to Halifax feel this way each time they step into a football stadium. That's the magic of football.

Keep right on.

John Baker

Email   Beyond The Far Post

All content is strict copyright Blues Muse/John Baker Photographer LLC/John Baker Designs/JayBee Stock.com

The entire content of this web-site is
strict copyright Blues Muse/John Baker Photographer LLC/John Baker Designs/JayBee Stock.com,
and is protected by United States and International copyright laws.
Images may not in any part or whole, be copied, reproduced, altered,
stored or transmitted without the express permission of the copyright owner.
No images within this web-site are within the public domain.