Soccer - Birmingham face ignominious drop to seal season of misery
By Sam Holden
LONDON Fri May 2, 2014 1:58pm BST
The Birmingham City manager, Lee Clark, has been criticised by some for chopping and changing the team. Photograph: Charlie Crowhurst/Getty Images
(Reuters) - Beleaguered English Championship club Birmingham City go into the final day of the English championship season on Saturday relying on other teams to save them from dropping to the third tier for the first time in 20 years.
Three years ago Birmingham beat Arsenal to win the League Cup, their first major trophy for almost half a century, but their season nosedived after that shock win and they ended it by dropping out of the Premier League.
Now, having not won a home league game for six months, they are on the brink of another relegation that would cap a miserable season.
Birmingham, third-last in the table, can stay up only if they get at least a point at Bolton Wanderers. They would then need Doncaster Rovers, a place and a point above them, lose at champions Leicester City. Should Birmingham win, they could survive if Millwall or Blackpool slip up.
Dropping out of the Championship would compound the club's woes after a turbulent few years on and off the pitch.
Club owner Carson Yeung was jailed in March for six years in Hong Kong for money-laundering and his arrest in 2011 meant his assets were frozen, forcing the club to sell some of their best players.
Manager Lee Clark has had to build a squad on loan signings and free transfers and the 1-0 home defeat by Wigan Athletic on Tuesday was Birmingham's fifth in a row.
It extended a miserable home league record to 18 games without a win with their last victory in front of their own fans coming against Millwall in October.
(Editing by Ed Osmond)
