Belief is a powerful thing. Even a few weeks ago, it would have been hard to see this Birmingham side win with ten men away from home, but we did it last night.
Part of that belief was instilled in the players by the 4800 fans that travelled to the Macron Stadium. In full voice they were the dominant noise around the ground, and it surely inspired the players to victory.
Again though, I go back to the idea of the virtuous circle which I’ve talked about in other posts. Garry Monk has set up the team to play on the front foot, that in turn gets the supporters on side, which creates a better atmosphere for the players to perform.
I don’t believe that for one second last night’s result would have been possible under Steve Cotterill. We did win two away games under the previous manager, but one of those was against a ten man Sheffield Wednesday side. Last night was a very different scenario.
We were playing a team who were also scrapping for their lives at the bottom of the table, but we still managed to come out with a win in very difficult circumstances.
After the game, the gaffer revealed he used the presence of our supporters as inspiration in his team talk. The confidence that our backing gave the players was rewarded with a great performance, and that’s good to hear.
How swiftly things can change from pessimism to optimism when you play positively, and try to get everyone on side. Of course, there is still a way to go before we are safe even if the five point gap to Barnsley feels like a good margin. They only have to win that game in hand to make things uncomfortable again.
Still we have that crucial momentum, and confidence with three wins in a row with three clean sheets to boot. Belief is certainly a powerful thing indeed.