The 2012–13 season was Birmingham City Football Club's 110th season in the English football league system and second consecutive season in the Football League Championship. It ran from 1 July 2012 to 30 June 2013.
Under the management of Lee Clark, who succeeded Chris Hughton in June 2012 with the club in financial turmoil and a transfer embargo in place, Birmingham finished the season in 12th place in the Championship, seven points clear of relegation and seven points outside the playoff positions. In the 2012–13 League Cup, they were eliminated in the second round by Coventry City, and they lost to Leeds United in the third round of the FA Cup after a replay.
Thirty-six players made at least one appearance in first-team competition, and there were seventeen different goalscorers. Wade Elliott appeared in 47 of the 50 matches over the season; Jack Butland played every minute of the 46 Championship matches. Despite injury forcing him to miss the last quarter of the season, Marlon King was again leading scorer; all but one of his 14 goals were scored in league games.
Background and pre-season
Birmingham City finished fourth in the 2011–12 Football League Championship, achieving a play-off place against fifth-placed Blackpool. This they lost over two legs.
The 2012–13 home kit had royal blue shirt and socks with white shorts, the change kit was all black, and there was a pink third shirt. It was manufactured by Diadora and carried the logo of the club's main sponsor, entertainment and leisure company EzeGroup.
The first-team squad had a week's training in Westendorf, Austria, ending with a friendly match on 21 July, before returning to England to face Shrewsbury Town three days later.
+Pre-season friendly match detailsDateOpponentsVenueResultScoreF–AScorersAttendanceRef21 July 2012Borussia MönchengladbachND2–2Davies 51', Asante 81'1,40024 July 2012Shrewsbury TownAW2–1Hancox 39', Žigić 72'3,20228 July 2012Cheltenham TownAL0–12,63631 July 2012BuryAW5–1Hughes 2' o.g., Løvenkrands (2) 15', 23', Burke 39', King 42'8074 August 2012Plymouth ArgyleAW5–0Redmond (2) 35', 41', Burke 55', Løvenkrands (2) 59', 64'2,77811 August 2012Royal AntwerpHL1–3Morrison 24'5,408
Championship
August–September
Jack Butland made his Birmingham debut – three days after his first game for England – as Birmingham opened their League campaign at home to Charlton Athletic with a 1–1 draw via a 94th-minute equaliser from substitute Nikola Žigić. At Sheffield Wednesday, he let a cross go through his hands onto Réda Johnson's head to open the scoring. Half-time substitute Žigić made the score 2–1, but Wednesday scored on the break, and Marlon King's late penalty was little consolation. Manager Lee Clark took responsibility for the defeat, blaming his use of a 4–3–3 starting formation. Žigić started alongside King at Watford, and loanee Ben Gordon made his debut in place of the injured David Murphy, but Steven Caldwell gave away a penalty in the third minute, Birmingham conceded a second goal after 17, and a poor performance was only enlivened when Morgaro Gomis came into the game with 25 minutes left.
With Curtis Davies, Žigić and Darren Ambrose added to the injury list, Birmingham went into the home match against pointless Peterborough United with five teenagers on the substitutes' bench. A farcical own goal by goalkeeper Bobby Olejnik, whose attempted punch of Wade Elliott's free kick went back over his head and bounced over a defender on the line, gave Birmingham their first league win of the season; the goal was later awarded to Elliott. Transfer deadline signing Paul Caddis, making his debut at right back, was named man of the match. Birmingham's first away point of the season came at Nottingham Forest. Substitute Elliott set up King, whose shot was parried to Hayden Mullins who volleyed home from just inside the penalty area, and Nathan Redmond avoided two tackles to cross for King who doubled the lead after 71 minutes. Simon Cox controlled a long aerial ball with one touch and lobbed Butland with a second, and with four minutes remaining, man-of-the-match Pablo Ibáñez deflected the ball into his own net.
Loanee Leroy Lita opened the scoring on his home debut in Birmingham's second league win, against Bolton Wanderers, but only days after Stephen Carr was sidelined for six months by knee surgery, Caddis dislocated a shoulder, leaving the team without a recognised right back. The attendance, of 14,693, was their lowest home league crowd for 15 years; according to the Birmingham Mail, fans blamed high ticket prices and financial uncertainty surrounding the club's ownership. Eight hundred fewer attended the visit of Barnsley, in which Murphy and Pablo went off injured, and Birmingham fan Craig Davies contributed four of the visitors' five goals in a 23-minute second-half spell to inflict Birmingham's worst home league defeat for 25 years. Lee Clark issued a public apology for the "embarrassing performance". Because Murphy's torn hamstring and Pablo's chipped bone in the foot were expected to keep them out for a month, reducing the club to two fit senior defenders, left-back Paul Robinson signed for a month as a free agent. He made a strong debut as Birmingham successfully defended a 1–0 lead, via Chris Burke's first goal of the season, a volley, at league leaders Brighton & Hove Albion. The second half was delayed for 25 minutes by floodlight failure.
October–November
October began with a 2–1 defeat at Cardiff City. Lita neatly touched Elliott's free kick home, but Cardiff's goals came from defensive errors: Packwood played them onside for the first, and failure to deal with a corner allowed Mark Hudson to score the winner. New loanee James Hurst made his debut as a second-half substitute. Courtesy of half-price ticket offers, more than 18,000 saw Birmingham lose 1–0 to Huddersfield Town; Žigić was sent off for a high tackle and Mitch Hancox made his competitive debut as substitute for the injured Davies. Clark accused the players of failing to take responsibility, making it clear that he was "not sitting in the dressing room telling them not to tackle, to pussyfoot around, telling them to mis-place passes. They can't just hide behind me all the time, they've got to come out fighting." Butland produced what he described as the best performance of his career and Ravel Morrison, selected for the first time since August after problems with his attitude to training led Clark to consider terminating his loan, was influential as Birmingham narrowly failed to beat league leaders Leicester City. Away to Millwall, Birmingham went 3–0 down in a seven-minute spell in the first half, two of the three scored by former loanee Chris Wood, before Marlon King scored the first hat-trick of his senior career to secure the draw. On his 40th birthday, Lee Clark selected the same starting eleven away at Leeds United, where Lita scored the only goal of the game from .
After Redmond gave the ball away in midfield, former Birmingham striker DJ Campbell scored the only goal of a dull meeting with Ipswich Town. Žigić, returning from suspension as a second-half substitute, missed two clear chances, with a free header and when one-on-one with the goalkeeper. Recalled to the starting eleven, Burke scored his second of the season three days later at home to Bristol City. Žigić made an assist for King, but his own profligacy continued, and he was clearly annoyed by Peter Løvenkrands' insistence on taking, and then missing, a stoppage-time penalty. A slow start at Blackburn Rovers was punished by Ruben Rochina's penalty after he was fouled by Murphy, but King equalised after Žigić hit the post. Robinson, deputising at centre half for the injured Davies, cleared off the line from Jordan Rhodes. For the third time this season, Birmingham went three goals behind, this time at home to Hull City where former Birmingham trainee Sone Aluko scored twice and took the corner that led to the third. Morrison's first goal for the club, a "spectacular volley" from Žigić's knockdown, began the attempted fightback, which continued immediately after the break when Žigić headed on Murphy's long ball to King who wrong-footed the goalkeeper to score his tenth of the season. Terry McDermott said afterwards that "to concede three goals at home and in the manner in which we did it is not acceptable to anybody."
The Birmingham Mail'''s Colin Tattum described the visit to Derby County as "a microcosm of what we've witnessed from Blues this campaign". An ineffective first half, in which they went one goal down, was followed by a lively second period, in which debutant loanee Rob Hall won a penalty, converted by King, and Løvenkrands headed a second goal, but the defence was unable to stop Derby regaining the lead. Davies's second-half header from a corner earned Birmingham a point at Blackpool, before November ended with the televised visit of third-placed Middlesbrough. Birmingham conceded after 15 minutes, but in first-half stoppage time, King was fouled by André Bikey for a penalty from which he equalised. Pablo's defensive hesitancy allowed Middlesbrough to regain the lead before Elliott chested down a defensive clearance on the edge of the penalty area and hit a dipping volley above the goalkeeper's hands. With ten minutes left, Løvenkrands picked up a loose ball in midfield and played a through ball that King ran onto and placed a "clinical finish" across the goalkeeper.
December–January King's 14th goal of the season came when he sliced a clearance into his own net to gift Wolverhampton Wanderers a win. Crystal Palace took a two-goal lead, and Løvenkrands was booked for diving in the penalty area, before substitute Žigić scored a well-placed header with his first touch before Papa Bouba Diop, on his first start, equalised with a powerful header from a corner. Teenage midfielder Callum Reilly made his league debut. Seven teenagers started the match, and Žigić played as a lone striker after Løvenkrands was injured during the pre-match warm-up, at home to Burnley. Davies opened the scoring with a header before Charlie Austin's headed equaliser was disallowed when the referee called play back for a foul on the player who had crossed the ball. Burnley took the lead in a two-minute spell in the second half before Žigić shot under the goalkeeper to equalise in the 89th minute. Two headed goals by Davies gave Birmingham a win at Barnsley to take them seven points clear of the relegation zone, though they were fortunate that Craig Davies, who scored four of Barnsley's five in the reverse fixture, missed a penalty. In what Clark thought "was our most inept performance for many, many weeks", at Bolton Wanderers, Žigić scored early but after Bolton secured a two-goal lead, his frustration got the better of him and he was booked twice in quick succession.
With no senior striker available, Mullins injured in the warmup, and his replacement, Reilly, injured half an hour into the match, Birmingham lost at home to league leaders Cardiff City by a single goal, tapped in by Joe Mason after Butland failed to deal with a long-range shot. Reilly's first senior goal gave Birmingham the lead as Clark returned to the club that sacked him less than a year earlier, but a 93rd-minute equaliser secured Huddersfield Town a share of the points. Caldwell's header from Hall's corner opened the scoring at home to Brighton & Hove Albion; Brighton took the lead, but in stoppage time, goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak appeared to have substitute Žigić's header under control but allowed it drop into the net. Davies opened the scoring away at Burnley, again from Hall's corner, then Robinson conceded a penalty from which Ross Wallace equalised. After Dean Marney was sent off, Birmingham had more of the game. Žigić should have scored when his late header hit the post, but he compensated with a flick-on that King volleyed home.
February–March