The 2011–12 season was Birmingham Citys 109th season in the English football league system. It ran from 1 July 2011 to 30 June 2012.
After relegation in 18th place from the Premier League in the top flight in the previous season under previous manager Alex McLeish, the team finished in 4th in the Championship under manager Chris Hughton, who was appointed in June after McLeish left for local rivals Aston Villa. They lost on aggregate to 5th place Blackpool in the play-off semi-final, 3–2 on aggregate. Having won the 2011 League Cup, they qualified for the Europa League, in which they reached the group stage and finished 3rd in their group, only one point behind the two teams qualifying for the knockout rounds. In the League Cup, as defending champions, they were eliminated in the third round by Manchester City, unable to defend their title, and they lost to eventual winners Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup after a replay.
Twenty-nine players made at least one appearance in first-team competition, and there were thirteen different goalscorers. Chris Burke, who received Birmingham's Player of the Season and Players' Player of the Season awards, played in 61 of the 62 matches over the season, scored 14 goals and made 19 assists. Marlon King was leading scorer with 18 goals, of which 16 came in league games; he also made 12 assists. Nathan Redmond was the club's young player of the year. Curtis Davies was named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year.
Background and pre-season
After leading the club to victory in the League Cup and relegation from the Premier League in 2010–11, Alex McLeish unexpectedly resigned on 12 June, having already made two signings and with another two players close to an agreement with the club. He was immediately linked with the managerial vacancy at Aston Villa. Acting chairman Peter Pannu threatened to report Villa to the League for making an illegal approach to McLeish, and insisted that they could speak to him only if they agreed to pay the £5.4 million compensation due under the terms of his contract. On 17 June, McLeish was appointed manager of Aston Villa. The matter was finally settled on 11 July, when the clubs issued a joint statement confirming that Villa would pay an undisclosed amount in compensation, all proposed legal action would cease, and coach Peter Grant and medical officer Dr Ian McGuinness would be free to follow McLeish to his new club. Chris Hughton, who had led Newcastle United to the Championship title in 2010, was appointed manager on 21 June. He confirmed that promotion back to the Premier League, rather than progress in the Europa League, was his main objective for the season, and brought Paul Trollope in to replace Andy Watson as first-team coach.
On 29 June, club president Carson Yeung was arrested in Hong Kong on charges of money laundering, relating to a period before his involvement with the club. He was bailed to re-appear in August, his assets were frozen, and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange suspended trading of shares in the club's holding company, Birmingham International Holdings (BIHL), in which Yeung was the single largest shareholder with around 26%. BIHL appointed acting chairman Peter Pannu and Yeung's 18-year-old son Ryan to the board of the football club, and Michael Wiseman stepped down from the board, ending an 83-year formal association between the club and the Wiseman family. Although it appeared that HSBC, the club's bankers, were unlikely to call in a loan secured on the St Andrew's site, as such a course of action would make it difficult for the club to continue, thus reducing the likelihood of HSBC recovering their money, Yeung's situation impeded the search for new investment. Such a combination of factors, added to the reduced income to be expected following relegation, left the club in financial difficulty and ready to off-load high-earning players, particularly in light of the Football League's adoption of UEFA's financial fair-play regulations relating to clubs not spending in excess of their revenue.
After the shirt sponsorship deal with F&C Investments expired at the end of the 2010–11 season, no long-term sponsor met the value the club set on the brand, so they chose to sell advertising on the shirt on a match-by-match basis. This had the by-product of replica shirts being sold without advertising. However, a one-year shirt sponsorship deal was reached with foreign exchange and money transfer company RationalFX. It emerged that the club had taken legal action against kit manufacturers Xtep for using a derivative version of the club's logo on their own leisurewear, thus infringing intellectual property rights and reducing royalties from sales of officially licensed clothing on the Chinese market.
The players reported back for pre-season training on 4 July ahead of a training camp in Ireland that included a friendly fixture with League of Ireland First Division side Cork City. Without Cameron Jerome and Nikola Žigić, who did not travel due to injury, and Barry Ferguson, who returned to England ahead of his transfer to Blackpool, Hughton used 19 players in a game settled by a 30th-minute goal from new signing Adam Rooney. In the next friendly, at League Two club Hereford United, Hughton made fewer changes but the game finished goalless as his team failed to convert several chances, a pattern continued at Oxford United, also of League Two, where Curtis Davies and Chris Burke both hit the bar as Birmingham lost 2–0. A Birmingham side without Scott Dann, Liam Ridgewell, Jerome, Žigić and Marlon King lost 2–1 to a strong Everton eleven. Everton opened the scoring after an hour through a Leighton Baines free kick, then after Louis Saha was allowed too much time on the edge of the penalty area, his shot bounced awkwardly in front of debutant Boaz Myhill. Rooney pulled one back with a back-heel to turn Morgaro Gomis' shot into the net.
DateOpponentsVenueResultScoreF–AScorersAttendanceRefs16 July 2011Cork CityAW1–0Rooney 30'1,91723 July 2011Hereford UnitedAD0–02,84826 July 2011Oxford UnitedAL0–22,74430 July 2011EvertonHL1–2Rooney 79'7,572
Championship
August–September Birmingham fielded five new signings, Boaz Myhill, Steven Caldwell, Chris Burke, Morgaro Gomis and Adam Rooney, on the opening-day visit to Derby County. Curtis Davies opened the scoring with a header from Jordon Mutch's 19th-minute corner, but soon afterwards a Ben Davies free kick was headed home by the unmarked Jason Shackell. Just before half time, Steve Davies was allowed time on the ball to set himself and beat Myhill with a swerving shot from . In the second half, Stephen Carr missed a fine chance to equalise when Burke's shot after a fine forward run rebounded into his path. At home to Coventry City, loanee Chris Wood started as a lone striker. Birmingham were fortunate that Lukas Jutkiewicz failed to convert a good chance after turning Caldwell, and Myhill came close to carrying the ball over his line when saving a misplaced cross. After 73 minutes, Rooney, who had replaced Wood five minutes before, headed against the post, was first to the rebound, and turned the ball back into the path of the oncoming Keith Fahey who shot home from ten yards out.
Playing on the Sunday because of their Europa League play-off match on the Thursday, Rooney opened the scoring from the penalty spot after Burke was fouled, but Middlesbrough went on to complete their third consecutive victory by three goals to one. Rooney again opened the scoring the following Sunday, at Watford, with a first-half tap-in after David Murphy headed on Jean Beausejour's corner. Marvin Sordell equalised from distance in the 80th minute, then Beausejour intercepted a pass and fed Chris Wood who finished neatly with two minutes of normal time remaining. However, in stoppage time, Myhill could only parry Sordell's shot up in the air, and former Birmingham defender Martin Taylor was first to the ball as it came down.
Myhill made two early saves against Millwall before Wood's first senior hat-trick, courtesy of Beausejour and Burke crosses and hard work by Rooney, took Birmingham into mid-table. Marlon King made a debut delayed by injury. Southampton beat Birmingham 4–1 at St Mary's to go top of the division, before a first half at home to Barnsley that Chris Hughton called "as poor as we've played since I've been here". Davies suffered a knee injury after nine minutes and Jacob Butterfield scored the first opposition goal of the season at St Andrew's, but the introduction of Nikola Žigić for his first league appearance since April put pressure on the visitors, a late Burke goal from , his first for the club, saved a point, and King nearly stole all three when his stoppage-time shot hit the inside of the post and came out.
October–November For the first time, Birmingham won the match after a Europa League fixture. A goal down at Nottingham Forest with 15 minutes left, Burke gathered a loose ball and hit a powerful shot from 25 yards, then set up Wood to score with the help of a deflection. Wood's second came from the Forest defence's failure to compete for a through ball. Manager Steve McClaren resigned after the match. After a change of referee at half-time because of injury, King converted a penalty before Leicester City's captain, Matt Mills, was sent off for a two-footed tackle on Gomis, and Wood brought his league goal tally to eight in nine games. They followed up with another win, away to Bristol City, despite missing several chances: Burke converted Beausejour's cross and beat the offside trap to score a 95th-minute second through David James's legs. Žigić's first goal since the League Cup final secured a 1–0 win at home to Leeds United, a sixth successive win in all competitions that placed Birmingham eighth in the table, one point off the playoff positions with two games in hand. October ended with a goalless "game of few chances" at home to Brighton & Hove Albion.
In sharp contrast, November began with a game of many chances, with both goalkeepers "in sensational form", in which Reading's Noel Hunt scored the only goal with his first touch. After Grant McCann's "spectacular" free kick earned Peterborough United a 1–1 draw at St Andrew's, a disappointed King stressed the need "to be more clinical in the final third all around the team". Beausejour followed up a Lee Grant save to give Birmingham an early lead against Burnley, but again it looked as though the forwards' profligacy would prove costly. King produced what the Independent proposed as a candidate for miss of the season, and Marvin Bartley equalised after a corner was cleared straight to his feet, but in the first minute of stoppage time, Redmond and Murphy combined down the wing and Burke converted Murphy's cross from close range. Second-half substitute Žigić headed wide "from point-blank range" in the 85th minute at Blackpool, then equalised from Jonathan Spector's cross two minutes later.
December–January A string of Birmingham errors helped Cardiff City to third place in the table. Having missed two headed chances in the first half, just after the interval Žigić chose to pass rather than shoot with only the goalkeeper to beat. Then Davies was sent off for a clumsy tackle on Kenny Miller on the edge of the penalty area. Although Peter Whittingham's free kick hit the post, substitute centre-half Pablo gifted Miller a goal shortly afterwards by heading a cross straight to his feet. Chris Hughton thought that "over 90 minutes we certainly had enough chances not to lose the game" at Hull City, blaming the defeat on failure to take chances and failure to defend well enough. Birmingham came from behind to beat Doncaster Rovers 2–1, with goals created by Burke and scored by King, before losing at Crystal Palace to a late Kagisho Dikgacoi header in a match dominated by the goalkeepers.