Duncan met me at Snow Hill at about midday, and he took me on a short guided tour around the city centre.  As is the case with many towns and cities around the country, Birmingham has been smartening itself up and I must say that I was very impressed.  In particular, the Symphony Hall and canal area has seen plenty of investment and there are numerous trendy looking bars lining the banks of the waterways.  We moved onto Broad Street which is home to an even greater amount of bars and many are themed sports bars.  Although this was 'Derby Day' there was a good atmosphere in the area and we spent the next hour or so talking football over a few beers.

We made the relatively short journey up to St Andrews by taxi and met up with Rick and his son Ashton, both Bristol City fans who were unable to get hold of tickets for their big cup tie away at Leicester the same day.  The four of us were taken to Duncan's regular pre-match haunt and we talked even more football - and grounds - before making our way to the stadium for the game.  As I approached I was impressed by modern appearance of the re-developed stands that cover 3 sides of the ground. However they seemed rather small, especially the Tilton Road End in which Duncan and I would be sitting.  Alas, this deceptive impression is akin to the Stadium of Light at Sunderland, as the pitch is below ground level which affords extra seating than what appears from the exterior. 

As we took our seats I gazed around St Andrews which was bathed in winter sunshine.  The ground is splendid in all areas apart from the older Main Stand.  This is the only area of the stadium that hasn't been demolished and re-developed recently and should the club decide to undertake such work then St Andrews would indeed be a venue that they could be proud of.  However, I was advised that the buildings that lie immediately behind this stand are listed and it would take lot to obtain permission to upgrade this part of the ground.  Although a decent crowd had gathered for the clash with West Brom I must say I was a little surprised that it wasn't full to capacity, and the away supporters' allocation could certainly have been increased.  Still, there was a cracking atmosphere which was obviously helped by the fact that the home fans were in carnival atmosphere as they prepared for their date in Cardiff (come on you Blues!).  

The game over, we walked back into town with the best intentions to catch early trains home.  Suffice to say that our post-match drinking session was so engrossing (we covered the entire spectrum of Saturday afternoon drinking topics from foreign English team managers, through football on TV, right through to the US President and the majority of his population) we both caught later trains and I had to get a rather expensive taxi home from Hitchin station as the buses had stopped by the time I got back.

As you can probably guess, I thoroughly enjoyed my day out at Birmingham and this was in no small part due to Duncan's excellent hospitality.  But aside from that the city is vibrant and I'm sure that anyone would enjoy a day out there.  I thought that the ground was an above average 1st Division venue and I was impressed with the atmosphere generated by the fans.  I'll certainly return to St Andrews, and not only to see Duncan again.  His wife kindly donated her season ticket to me for the day so I never acquired a match ticket stub; to complete my collection I'll have to go back!