Birmingham was a worthy setting for a laborious afternoon of irritation and disappointment.
It is a city of destitution and misery.
A polished centre masks filthy residential sprawls where English is a second language and despair leaks from every blackened wall.
Decaying red factory buildings once bubbled with the innocent patter of Brummie workmen. Now their shattered windows and rotting walls make the city a sadistic caricature of its own industrial past.
I have heard good things about the enthusiasm and thrust of the St Andrew’s crowd. But on today’s evidence, it is one of the worst places in the country to watch football.
Inside it is grey and dull and has the suffocating feel of a workhouse. Out in the stands it is not a lot better.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Birmingham fans made as little sound as is physically possible until they look the lead. Not that there was an awful lot to shout about.
The first half was dogged, unpleasant and irritating. Forest contained the hosts but rarely threatened beyond Tyson’s bursts of pace.
There were one or two moments of promise as Cohen battled forward and mustered some excellent football, but it was very occasional.
An early Tyson breakaway ended with him ballooning his shot into the stratosphere. It was no surprise – the furrowed pitch was fit for rugby league. Or cricket in Antigua...
Birmingham did not have a lot to their game. McLeish has an impressive battery at his disposal, but it was Forest’s defensive fragility that gave the home side their edge.
Paul Smith’s save from Larsson’s free-kick, just a minute before the break, was one of the first saves of the match. The first half seemed to have lasted a week.
Billy Davies made a spirited attempt to raise spirits with a rallying call on his way to the dressing room. The Birmingham fans, meanwhile, received their half-time ‘special guests’ with silent ignorance.
Sadly the second half was always destined to fall in their favour. Forest had worked tirelessly and defended desperately to keep the contest open, but with Tyson frustrated and Garner invisible it was probably always going to be a 0-0 or a defeat.
The first goal was a huge blow. Davies’ brought on Newbold and McCleary and for a few minutes there seemed to be life in the side. But the longer we played without equalising, the less threatening we looked.
Birmingham’s second was a perfectly-executed toe-poke from a tight angle. I think I made more of an attempt to save it than Smith did.
The game ended with a winded Forest side clinging on to its dignity as Birmingham searched for a third.
It was not a disastrous performance by any means, but our weaknesses are again being exposed for all to see.
The back three were rattled all afternoon, the young wing-backs gave everything but were stretched to breaking point.
There was a concerted effort to forge outlets from nothing as Cohen and McGugan probed for openings, but without pace on the wings we are shamefully dependent on Tyson’s pace.
The ideas are there, the organisation is there, the common sense is there – but we are probably three or four players light of a side capable of punishing sides like Birmingham.
It is difficult to speak highly of our hosts. They have a talented line-up, but they will struggle to maintain their status at the top of the table with performances like this.
I’m glad to be out of Birmingham, I’m glad we’re potentially seven days away from revenge against the Rams.
But I am fearful and annoyed that we are heading for a brutal dogfight that could so easily have been avoided.
