Birmingham City suffered a significant blow at the weekend after losing 4-2 to arch-rivals Aston Villa at Villa Park.
Garry Monk’s side entered the game having tasted defeat just once in their past 13 matches but the loss flips the formbook on its head as the Blues have now failed to win any of their last three games, having previously drawn with Hull City and losing to Derby.
There has been plenty of takeaways from the defeat, which extended Birmingham’s poor recent record against their arch-rivals, and many fans on social media have signalled out Gary Gardner for criticism after a poor display.
Gardner has struggled for first-team opportunities this season, accumulating a total of just four appearances in the Championship, but the general assessment from supporters is that he should not get any further opportunities.
We have gathered some of their comments below.
Hope to never see Craig Gardner in a blues shirt again
— Aidan Peaty (@PeatyBcfc) November 25, 2018
I will say it again…anyone else notice the correlation in the form of #BCFC when Craig Gardner is in and around the squad?!?! #BadEgg
— Chris Royston (@MrBrightside_32) November 25, 2018
Craig Gardner is a disgrace #bcfc
— Conway M (@conwaybcfc) November 25, 2018
It’s been an absolutely pathetic display from Gardner today. Constantly lost the ball, let’s players drift past him with ease. #bcfc
— Robert Ware (@Rob_MA_Ware) November 25, 2018
Gardner at fault. Let him run past him. Token challenge. Rubbish play.
— Steven Horne (@sahinbrum) November 25, 2018
Craig Gardner should never wear a blues shirt again, since coming back his stole a wage???? him shouting at ped for not stopping the cross but then let’s hutton walk past him to go on to score #BCFC
— DTL (@danlawler_) November 26, 2018
Also good to see Craig Gardner still spends derby games doing absolutely nothing, but with an angrier and uglier face than normal. #BCFC
— Matthew Debney. (@Matthew_Debney) November 25, 2018