"Also on a personal note, I actually like Birmingham City, despite all our run-ins over the years. They carry the city’s name and I think to follow them, instead of the historically more successful Aston Villa, shows the sort of local pride us Millwall fans can identify with."
Indeed, that is the story of Birmingham City really, a ‘nearly’ club. We have covered some ‘if only’ moments for Millwall here, but Birmingham City have plenty of their own. They are nearly as old as Aston Villa, but not quite, having been founded a year later in 1875.
Founded by members of the Holy Trinity Church cricket club, in an attempt to keep fit during the winter months, they started life as the Small Heath Alliance FC. They nearly made the cut for the first ever season of the Football League in 1888, having established themselves as a decent professional team, but lost out to local rivals West Bromwich Albion and Wolverhampton Wanderers, with Aston Villa, who suggested the idea of a Football League, pulling the strings. That did not hold them back too much, as they joined the Second Division in 1893 and gained promotion to the top flight in 1894, but that crucial six-year lag behind Aston Villa has pretty much been in place ever since.
Yet they still very nearly made it up. In 1906 they built an impressive new ground at St. Andrew’s and changed their name to Birmingham FC, and by the 1920s and 1930s were a main stay of the First Division and even made their first FA Cup final in 1931. But of course, they lost to Second Division West Bromwich Albion, in front of 92,406 Midlanders at Wembley.
They had to wait until 1956 for their next opportunity. By now they were known as Birmingham City, and were flying high in the First Division, having finished 6th. Unfortunately, their opponents were a decent Manchester City side that had finished 4th, and who had a goalkeeper in Bert Trautmann tough enough to play on with a broken neck. They lost 3-1 and have not managed to be back for another FA Cup final since.
However, Birmingham City very nearly went on to then become England’s first major force in Europe, reaching the Semi-Finals of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1956, narrowly losing a reply with Barcelona 2-1, after a 4-4 draw on aggregate. Barcelona were also the opponents when Birmingham City became the first English side to reach a European final in 1960, and the first to nearly win one, having drawn 0-0 at St Andrew’s. But they were outclassed 4-1 at the Camp Nou. They reached the final again the following season, but suffered a 4-2 defeat over the two legs to Roma, having again drawn the first match, this time 2-2.
The Blues did finally manage to break their duck and win a major trophy in 1963 though. And what a way to break it! They defeated hated rivals Aston Villa to win the League Cup. This final was also played over two-legs back then, home and away, but this time the Blues used the first leg at home to their advantage, overwhelming Villa 3-1 and seeing out the second leg 0-0.
Fast forward a decade later, and on beating Millwall to promotion, Birmingham City looked like they were about to become the undisputed force in England’s second largest city for the first time in their history. Villa were struggling and had found themselves in the Third Division in 1970. Villa only got out of it the same season Birmingham City were promoted back to the top flight. This was an era when the Blues had a sexy kit, sexy players and big crowds. But Villa recovered and not only won a League Cup whilst in Division Two in 1975, but won another in 1977. They were also back in the top flight and went on to win the title in 1981 and then the European Cup in 1982, with Birmingham City fighting relegation most seasons, before it finally came in 1984. They bounced back, but were down again in 1986, playing in front of less than 11,000 fans. Crowds started to dip below 8,000 in the Second Division, as the team struggled and the club, like Millwall in that era, were blighted by hooliganism. By 1990, they had been relegated to the third tier for the first time in their history, and in 1992 they nearly went out of business for good.
Step in some Millwall hate figures in Karen Brady and David Sullivan, as well as the Gold brothers, add in one of football’s greatest duckers and divers in Barry Fry, and Birmingham City started to recover. But it took that heartbreaking defeat of Millwall and then a final win over Norwich City (who ironically had also been in that 1971/72 fight for promotion, finishing top) to get back up to the top division, sixteen long years after last being there.
Since then, it has been more of the same ‘oh so nearly’ stuff for the Midlanders. They won the League Cup in 2011, but were also relegated from the Premier League the very same season. And are yet to return.
Yet now they have a filthy rich and sports mad owner in Tom Wagner, as well as the charismatic Tom Brady alongside him, and dreams making Birmingham City the number one team in the Midlands. Can the Blues finally put to bed or the ‘what ifs?’ and ‘oh so nearlys’? Well, it is certainly a tough trip for us and a point would be a good return imo.
Also on a personal note, I actually like Birmingham City, despite all our run-ins over the years. They carry the city’s name and I think to follow them, instead of the historically more successful Aston Villa, shows the sort of local pride us Millwall fans can identify with.
👍earlier on it talks about their ‘sliding door moment’ when we beat a promising young team 1-0
and went on to pip them for promotion - it m en tons the goal was controversial and indeed, it was the most offside goal I’ve ever seen us score.
No desire to be a pedant or such like, but, the European ‘adventure’ in the early 60’s was NOT under the banner of Birmingham City.
UEFA was trying to get a tournament off the ground as a stable mate to the European Cup, it was given the title of the European Inter City Fairs Cup, comprising of teams from a number of Cities around Europe including Rome, Barcelona, Paris & London, plus two others & it was by invitation only.
That’s where the problems for UEFA began, to try & compile a team to represent London was, well an impossible task as there were numerous ‘issues’ between the clubs from the smoke as to how many players they could each release for this new European adventure, how would it be managed? What would happen if key players were injured? Not to mention some sort of compensation for such occurrences.
Given all this, UEFA withdrew the offer to London, & offered it to Birmingham.
No problem, chance to shine a light on the place in the middle of the country which didn’t get that much exposure.
So ‘Birmingham’ took part in the tournament with representatives from B6, B9 & B71.
No. London DID send a representative team in the first Fairs Cup. And it reached the final.
Blues took the Birmingham place because Vile weren’t interested. Some cities had combined sides (Zurich, Copenhagen); others didn’t (Milan just sent Inter).
Wow, never knew that. I've mentioned 'our' early European games to Vile mates of mine to shut them up a bit, and I've never had any come back from any of them on that.
Do you know, was that just the first season, the one when Birmingham went out in the semi final to Barcelona or is that also true for the 58-60 and 60-61 when 'we' lost in the finals.
Edit- sorry, Bluearmyfaction, only just spotted your post.
