It was all going so well for an hour or so. Birmingham were on a poor run away from home, looked very poor up front and generally lacking in ideas. We created few chances but managed to get ourselves in front from a well worked corner, McGugan’s cross flicked on by Derbyshire and Miller couldn’t miss. Everything looked set for the first home win of the season until the second half substitutions. We replaced our best attacking options in MOTM Majewski and Miller with Greening and Findley and lost all momentum going forward. They, put two players up front and suddenly started to put pressure on our feeble defence. As soon as we conceded the first goal, the end result was all too predictable.

We gave the ball away in midfield, Moussi didn’t close down their player, who beat Camp, disappointingly, from distance. Shortly after we found ourselves behind, McGugan tried a fancy back-heel in their half, they raced past Hill down the right wing and from the pull back, the mis-hit shot bobbled into the bottom corner. It wasn’t a surprise when they rounded it off with a third but the manner of the goal said a lot about our players this season. An aimless through ball was mis-controlled by Chambers to allow their player to run clear and score, that was bad enough but to simply stand there and watch without running back, was unforgivable.

The decision for McClaren to leave wasn’t a surprise, you could tell that Radio Nottingham knew it was coming as they kept broadcasting well past their scheduled time. It just simply wasn’t working out for him in this league. The solid defence and backbone of the side in the past couple of seasons had disappeared and we’ve rarely been a high-scoring side that would have compensated for this. His signings have been uninspiring, with only Miller showing signs of genuine quality for this league.

Boateng was reasonable back-up when experience was needed within the squad and only really started games whilst Moussi gained fitness. If the re-signing of Moussi was ever a possibility then we should have exhausted that avenue before considering another option in that position. The signing of Greening has been the biggest disappointment where he seems nothing like the dynamic play-maker from a couple of years ago and seems to be playing well-within his true capabilities. This is in addition to the negative impact it's had on the likes of McGugan, who's often found himself left out of the side. The lack of quality and pace in wide areas has cost us badly even without the injuries to Anderson and McCleary and should have been resolved before the start of the season. Having identified a real talent in Verhoek to address this failing, for some reason we didn’t follow up with other alternatives and the problem never went away.

We've been woefully ill-prepared for this season, to the extent that McClaren never managed to decide on his best starting XI. Having filled the squad with a number of central midfielders, adding to McGugan, Cohen and Majewski already at the club, he could never possibly squeeze them all into a sensible line-up and performances suffered as a result. Reid hasn't looked like contributing to the side since his arrival, his lack of pace being exaggerated via the absence of a natural pacey left back and midfield colleagues equally as immobile. Having found what looked like a balanced line-up and decent performance against Wycombe, we then reverted back to type for the next league game and normal service was resumed. The early stages of this season were treated as an extension of pre-season in the vain hope that we would be able to suddenly find form. In reality, we've become increasingly desparate with the trademark switching of personnel and formations that tend to indicate a change of manager is on the horizon. We're lucky to have gained as many points as we have so far.

However, for all of McClaren's faults, there is simply no excuse for the level of performance we've seen from some of the established players at the club this season. The likes of Camp, Gunter and Chambers have performed well below the standards they have set for themselves previously at the club.

Camp used to be such an influential figure at the back, always vocal and making a number of impressive saves during games. This season he's very rarely made anything but routine saves and has regularly been beaten with efforts we would have expected him to save. Gunter has been at fault a number of times this season, either failing to prevent crosses from wide areas or getting beaten in the air by a more determined opponent. The composed defending and pacey runs from deep seem a thing of the past and found himself deservedly dropped. With the one paced midfield we've been left with, it was essential that we could rely on pace from full back but he's been sadly lacking.

Finally, the selection of Chambers as captain has been a disaster since the start of the season. Every week there's been yet another amateurish mistake as yet another simple pass slips under his foot and gives the opposition an unexpected chance on goal. We've got away with a few but it's almost a weekly occurrence now. The sight of him giving away the 3rd goal on Sunday and not even bothering to run back was about as low as it could get. Having gone from player of the season last time, he's barely worthy of selection in the reserves on current form. Lynch having looked much more competent in his rare chances at centre back.

The only players to emerge from this period with any credit are Lynch for a number of decent performances on the few times he's been selected. Both at centre and left back, he's been better than the alternatives we've seen. As long as he can stay fit, he could find himself having a important role this season. In a disjointed and muddled midfield, Majewski has looked lively throughout and generally the most likely to create something for the team. Having been largely overlooked last season, he's become one of the important players so far.

Tags: Games Lost, MOTM Raddi Majewski