Blues toiled to earn their win, giving their plucky opponents as much of a chance as possible by playing most of the game with ten men and generally being abysmal, but even so, they still had too much for the visitors. Just.
As Alex McLeish had hinted, James McFadden was rested and left on the bench, meaning that Cameron Jerome and Kevin Phillips started up front. Mehdi Nafti also returned (for a short while) in midfield alongside Lee Carsley.
Doncaster started the game brightly, with some neat movement and decent football. They were backed by a good away following who would put Newcastle or Sunderland fans to shame in the "wearing replica shirts" stakes. Still, when you come from a town where your choice of fashion houses is Scope, the Doncaster Rovers Club Shop and Barnados, it's not hard to see why so many wear the famous (within a 3 mile radius of Doncaster) red and white hoops.
Whilst Doncaster started well, Blues were appalling, absolutely all over the pitch. Doncaster were much the better team for the first twenty minutes or so, and then Blues' early garbageness was summed up in a 10 second spell. First Martin 'Beckenbauer' Taylor decided to try and control a ball dropping from 50 foot in the air. Showing all the poise of an elephant, Taylor trapped the ball 10 yards away from him, straight to a Doncaster player (do not expect me to know any of their names). That Doncaster player broke, but Carsley broke the move up on the edge of Blues' area. However, Carsley trod on the ball and fell over, and another Doncaster player moved in, before Nafti dived in, studs up, with both feet off the ground. It was a stupid challenge from someone who should know better, and although he made no real contact with the man, it was ugly and he deserved his red card.
So, Blues who had been hopeless with eleven men now had to try and be less hopeless with ten men. It was a tough ask, and they continued to struggle. Fortunately, with Doncaster's team being made up mainly of teachers, accountants and postmen and only training once a week, on Tuesdays at 6.30pm for an hour at the Rotherham Community Centre, their early exertions began to take their toll and they faded too. All of which meant that the first half ended up being about as entertaining as sitting on a chair in an empty room with nothing for company but an episode of series 3 of 'The Upper Hand'.
Towards the end of the first half McFadden was brought on for Quincy who had been as hapless as all of his team-mates, whilst Marcus Bent was brought on at the interval for Kevin Phillips. With ten men, Blues basically played 4-4-1 with Jerome playing wide right. The problem with this was that having a 57 year old midget with all the pace of a tree up front on his own meant that Blues' ball retention was as woeful as every other aspect of their performance. So, Bent came on hopefully to provide a little more running and win some balls in the air.
And how he did...
Almost immediately after the break a Liam Ridgewell hoofed clearance (or precision free-kick, depending on whether you like him or not) was nodded down expertly by Bent and Jerome was on hand to swivel and smash it into the back of the net past the only Doncaster player I'd ever heard of - Ronnie O'Sullivan. Now Bent has his critics (and some faults), but one thing I like about him is that he wins headers with purpose. He doesn't just jump and get his head to the ball with no idea where it's going to go next - he uses it to good effect. Blues have rarely had someone like that in recent times, and it's a decent weapon to have, rather than the likes of Jerome who jumps and flicks it on to opposition defenders.
Moments later Blues should have been 2-0 up when Bent played in Seb Larsson. The Swede really should have scored, but O'Sullivan saved his weak left foot shot. It summed up a pretty useless performance by Larsson who constantly gave the ball away, got caught out of position, kicked anyone who moved wearing red and white and just generally cheated. In fairness to him, I don't think you could question his attitude - he just had one of those awful days.
With ten men and a lead, Blues were now content to invite Doncaster onto them and try and hold on, which they succeeded in doing. Just. Maik Taylor made one stunning save, pushing one of the teachers' shots onto the post when unsighted, and Doncaster were harshly not awarded any of the four or five nailed on penalties that they appeared to have won, including Bent catching the ball and Larsson tripping Darren Byfield (I recognised him too, because he's played against Blues about 783 times over the past 20 years for about 55 different clubs).
And that was that - Blues held on. Like all of these new-fangled DVDs and the like that the Doncaster number 7 sells from his market stall in Goole, I'm going to offer an "alternate ending" to this report. Please choose either option 1 or 2 below.
1) You have to say that Blues did well to win against a spirited Doncaster Rovers team who refused to lie down. Teams will raise their game when they come to St Andrews, particularly no-mark teams like Doncaster Rovers, and Blues have to deal with that. Add to that the fact that Blues played much of the game with just ten men after Nafti's moment of madness (when it was 0-0 and Blues were lucky that it was), then really and truly you have to be chuffed to have gone on to get the three points.
OR
2) Blues' luck will run out soon. They haven't impressed at all this season, and all the hopes of the good football and the blowing teams away seem a long, long time ago. Blues were poor throughout and were lucky that they were up against a Doncaster side that, whilst spirited, lacked any real quality whatsoever. Had they had any real quality to go with their excellent endeavour, they'd have put Blues to the sword today. Not one Blues player could you say "he had a really good game today" about, and it's a worry just how poorly the side are playing.