“Atmosphere is never going to be the same until it is fixed” – Birmingham City fan pundit discusses matchday experience at St Andrew’s | OneFootball

This article is part of Football League World’s ‘Terrace Talk‘ series, which provides personal opinions from our FLW Fan Pundits regarding the latest breaking news, teams, players, managers, potential signings and more…

Birmingham City are performing better than many were predicting ahead of the 2022/23 Championship season.

Ten games into the campaign, the Blues sit 17th in the league standings, and boss John Eustace appears, from the outside looking in, to be harnessing a really good dressing room atmosphere.

You only have to look at the Blues’ celebrations after wins away at Preston or West Brom to see that that is the case, and how passionate Eustace is about his job.

With a positive atmosphere around the club building then, we thought we’d ask FLW’s Blues fan pundit Tom Oxland for his thoughts on the matchday experience at St Andrews, and what could potentially be improved.

With the lower tiers of some of the stands at St Andrews closed since 2020, the answer was an easy one.

“Without the lower tiers of St Andrews being open the atmosphere is never going to be the same until it is fixed – everyone knows it.” Tom explained to FLW.

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“However, around the ground the experience is improving a little bit.

“There’s improvements matchday experience wise, food and drink, just little things like that, and a few licks of paint here and there aren’t too bad.

“But what the fans really want is the lower tiers to be fixed.”

Birmingham City next face Sheffield United away from home in Championship action following the conclusion of the international break.

Their next match at St Andrews comes on October 8th up against Bristol City.

The Verdict

The mood around St Andrews appears to be a good one at the moment.

That makes it a real shame that the lower tiers our fan pundit eludes to are not open and full of Blues fans.

The attendances at St Andrews have taken a hit as a result and therefore so has the atmosphere.

Even though it can be good at times, it would surely be better with thousands more fans on the terraces.

You hope for Blues fans this is a matter that is fixed sooner rather than later, but, it remains to be seen when things will be fixed after mixed updates earlier this year.