It may be a little too late, but have Birmingham City found their way?
A troubled, frustrating season looks as if it could end with a bit of a flourish.
Blues have lost twice in the last 12 Championship matches and moved up the rungs to exactly mid-table.
Surely, they are too good to be relegated (seven points clear). But not quite good enough to make the play-offs (10 points away).
As we have seen all campaign, the Championship is a division difficult to predict. You can never quite know.
But Blues do have a more assured, confident look about them. Since the turn of the year, results have been, generally, decent.
Their only three defeats – the first of those on January 1 was unfortunate to leaders Cardiff City – have come against the top three sides.
It’s wrong to say the 5-2 bashing at Hull City was a freak result, but it wasn’t representative of how Blues have been performing overall.
“I can only reiterate what we have been saying for a couple of months in that the approach that seems to serve us well is not getting too far ahead of ourselves,” said midfielder Wade Elliott.
“We have just got to go from game to game.
“After the international break we will focus our attention on Crystal Palace.
“We are on an upward curve, one or two blips aside, and we are looking to continue that.
“It’s disappointing that we haven’t done as well as we should have at home.
“Traditionally we usually do – last season we were really strong at St Andrew’s.
“For whatever reason, we haven’t been able to replicate that.
“But our away form has been very good. Although we have had one or two blips in the last 12 or 13 games, that aside we are hopefully finding a better level of consistency now than earlier in the season.”
Blues’ victory at Middlesbrough – their first win on Teesside since 1980 – was a real professional job.
“All things considered, it was a pretty good performance at Middlesbrough, a terrific win,” said Elliott.
“We just roll on to Palace now to try and keep the results going and then see where that takes us.”
Blues face Palace at Selhurst Park on Good Friday, March 29 (5.30pm).
In the grand scheme of things, no one at St Andrew’s is suggesting that they are happy with the way the season has gone.
Before a ball was kicked, there was optimism that another promotion campaign would be mounted.
Steve Watson, Blues’ first team and development squad coach, said people had to be realistic when passing judgement.
“Asking me as a coach, I think however things pan out – and I don’t want to pre-empt anything – if we can finish mid-table, with what I have seen goes on behind the scenes, I would consider it a decent season,” he insisted.
“Is that good enough for Birmingham City Football Club? No, of course it’s not. Absolutely not.
“None of us are kidding ourselves and thinking it would be.
“But I am looking at what we have had to deal with, and what we see on a daily basis, the financial situation and other factors like losing Stephen Carr and David Murphy, two of the best players in the division, for pretty much the whole of the season, and now Marlon King, then it has been tough.”
Blues lost Jonathan Spector at the Riverside early on due to an ankle injury,.
But it is not as bad as first feared as there is no major ligament damage.
