Following his fine displays at the back end of the previous season, Collins was having an uncomfortable start to the 2004/05 campaign (what sort of signal did the pursuit of DeVos and the purchase of Page send out to him?), but the youngster was able to complete his third appearance for his country with a third clean sheet as Wales recorded a 2-0 win over opposition that had been playing in Portugal in the finals of Euro 2004 only a couple of months earlier.
When you consider that the first team had not kept a clean sheet at all so far, if ever a time was ripe for a change of tactics and a switch to three at the back it was now. Lennie Lawrence could have kept the Page and Collins combination together and slotted the fit again Danny Gabbidon in alongside them, but, apart from a brief flirtation with a kind of 4-3-3 system, Lennie had been a 4-4-2 man through and through during his time with us and it was more of the same for the match at Ipswich as Collins and Page continued their partnership with Gabbidon slotting in for Weston at right back.
There were a couple of other changes as well with Richard Langley switching into central midfield for Lee Bullock to accommodate Jobi McAnuff on the right and Martyn Margetson made way for Tony Warner as the former Millwall keeper made a belated first league start. Unfortunately, Warner’s difficult start to his career with the Bluebirds continued when, after a quiet start, he was beaten at his near post by a shot from Darren Bent out on the right.
City remained a goal behind well into the second half but then Alan Lee (who’s early season form was a rare bright spot in a difficult opening month) showed power and pace to race from the half way line and shoot over Kelvin Davies to equalise against the run of play. For a while after that, City threatened to get on top, but Ipswich restored their authority midway through the half when Miller scored after Counago had turned Collins all too easily. Paul Parry (feeling his way back from injury) replaced Jobi McAnuff who had made a quiet debut and Alan Campbell came on for Earnie as City chased an equaliser, but, in reality, a goal was always more likely up the other end and, after several narrow escapes, the game was put beyond them four minutes from time when Westlake scored an easy third.
Well beaten with players, apparently, arguing amongst themselves after the third goal, the warning signs were already there for City - far from the play off challengers that the manager had predicted they would be, they were giving all the signs of a side who would be more concerned with the bottom of the table rather than the top for the next nine months.
On the face of it, a trip to a Kidderminster destined to be relegated to the Conference for a First Round League Cup tie offered a much needed chance to restore confidence. A fit again Willie Boland replaced Richard Langley as Lennie Lawrence rotated his squad with Weston, Bullock, Campbell and Parry all starting. Jobi McAnuff gave his first real indication of what he could offer City when his good run helped create a goal that was well finished by Earnie. That was after 28 minutes and the opportunity was there for the team to make their apparent superiority count, but it was typical of the early season City that within four minutes the basement side were level as they conceded yet another goal from a set piece as Brown headed in a free kick.
A game that could have been comfortable now became a real slog as City struggled to cope with the home team and the sides were still level at 1-1 after 90 minutes. Extra time didn’t produce a goal (but it did see a red card for Tony Vidmar for a second bookable offence), so it was down to a penalty shoot out where Tony Warner was able to block one of the Kidderminster efforts which left Robbo to score the winning penalty to an accompaniment of “we want Lennie out” - this chant was to be heard more and more over the next month!
All the while the Earnie speculation rumbled on and on, but, with the transfer window closing in a week or so, supporters were beginning to think that we may hold onto our top scorer - after all Sam Hammam was still adamant that he wouldn’t be sold although, significantly, Lennie Lawrence had been saying for a while that he thought any bid was likely to come in the days just before the window closed.
Although I suppose most of us had been half expecting it, when the bid did come it was still like a bolt from the blue. Apparently West Brom made their bid on the Friday before the team were due to face Stoke, but most people weren’t aware of it until the official site confirmed a few hours before kick off that permission had been given for Earnie to talk to the newly promoted team.
I must admit my first feeling on hearing the news was one of betrayal - the owner who said he was willing to bet a million pounds that Earnie would stay, who had described the team whose bid we had accepted as “a feeder club”, who said the striker would leave “over his dead body” and had proclaimed our days as a selling club were over had caved in to the first bid we had received for the player! Having said that, my mood changed a couple of hours later when I read a message from a regular poster on here that he had just been speaking to Sam Hammam and had been told that a couple of West Brom players were coming here as part of the deal. By now the local media were reporting the story and the consensus was that a fee of £3.5 million had been agreed between the clubs - but of course, they didn’t know what us message board readers did, we had it straight from the horse’s mouth that we would be getting new players in exchange!
While all this was going on, it was almost being forgotten that a match was to be played! In Earnie’s absence, Andy Campbell was brought in to play up front with Alan Lee. The Play Off hero had done little since that great goal against QPR to justify the near £1 million fee we had paid for him. To be fair to him, it must have been very frustrating to have been nothing more than Earnie’s understudy for the past two years, but now Campbell had the chance to establish himself as our first choice striker - to be frank, the way Campbell dealt with the opportunity has ensured that, I would guess, the vast majority of City fans are hoping he will be one of the many departures that are expected this summer!
The Stoke match did not live long in the memory - the visitors had made a good start to the campaign and seemed content to soak up pressure for the first half hour or so, but, significantly, their first attack saw them come closer to scoring than City, for all their territorial dominance, had done up to then as Akinbiyi hit a post. Shortly after that, Akinbiyi got clear of Collins and fed Noel-Williams who scored easily and that was that - for all their huffing and puffing, City rarely threatened the Stoke goal and another visiting team left with one of those 1-0 victories we were to become all too familiar with!
To be fair to the City, referee Howard Webb (who, until now, had been something of a lucky mascot for us) did turn down two penalty shouts one of which, for a foul on McAnuff, looked a stonewall penalty for me. For all of their poor play and displays, a feature of the opening games of the season was the number of seemingly clear cut penalties we were denied. Earnie had been blatantly fouled in the box against Crewe and Plymouth and nothing had been given and now it had happened again - if some of these penalties had been given and converted , City could have been four points better off than they were, how would our season have shaped up then?
With the game out of the way, attention could switch back to the Earnie transfer again and City supporters went to sleep that night amid rumours that the deal had hit a snag amid rumours of a late bid from Everton who were in the process of selling Wayne Rooney to Manchester United. However the next morning soon bought confirmation that Earnie was going to become a West Brom player and, for me, the most significant development of the day was the news that Sam Hammam was arranging a meeting with 100 City fans (selected on a first come, first served basis) in which he would explain why Earnie was being sold and where we went from here. Predictably, the places were taken up in no time at all, the meeting would be held on the following Tuesday evening, just over twenty four hours after the City had played their August Bank holiday game at Wigan.