Death, taxes and Bristol City conceding from a corner.
It was a familiar tale as Nigel Pearson hit out at his side's defending as Birmingham punished the Robins with two early goals to ensure they took the three points back to the Midlands.
The manager wanted a response to the defeat at Nottingham Forest a week ago and it was anything but after Tahith Chong opened the scoring with just two minutes on the clock.
Then came in the killer blow just 10 minutes later when Antoine Semenyo lost his man in the area with Nico Gordon, making his first league appearance of the season, heading in from a corner on the right.
Some desperate defending in the opening 45 minutes ensured it wasn't three but the supporters certainly made their frustrations heard at the half-time whistle as the players trudged back down the tunnel.
Alex Scott's goal in the opening few minutes of the second half gave the fans something to celebrate but they couldn't capitalise on their second-half pressure to grab an all-important equaliser and ease the pressure on the manager.
City will now head to Blackburn on the back of three straight defeats as they slipped to 19th in the table - here's the verdict on a disappointing afternoon at Ashton Gate.
The end of the four at the back (for now)?
That experiment could be put on the backburner for the time being. It's the fourth consecutive match where Pearson has opted for the four at the back and the second time in succession he has switched to the three at half-time.
Against Boro, it worked although they did ride their luck at times while there were plenty of positives from the performance against Coventry despite the late defeat.
Against Nottingham Forest, they were pummelled down the flanks in the first half and it was the same scenario yesterday with Birmingham getting plenty of joy down their left side.
Lee Bowyer spotted the weakness in City's defence and they exploited it to great effect, hitting City on the counter-attack with the likes of Onel Hernandez and Lyle Taylor using their pace to have defenders running towards their own goal.
Pearson's issue now is if teams do their homework, those wing-backs might as well start the game with targets on their back. To play a wing-back system, it's imperative to have players of the required calibre and the fact of the matter is, City don't have that at their disposal.
The manager admitted it in his interview after the game, saying: "We don’t have wingbacks within the football club really. I know where we need to strengthen moving forward and one of the problems is everybody will always think that the players that aren’t playing are always the solution."
Playing with a four at the back or a three has yielded no remedies for the amount of goals shipped in but City look too easy to play against when the line up with a four.
With Rob Atkinson making a welcome return from injury, it gives the manager more options in central defence allowing Tomas Kalas, Timm Klose and the former to play alongside each other.
City did look slightly more comfortable in the second half, although they had Dan Bentley to thank for two great saves, to keep them in the contest up until the last minute.
With a tough trip up to Blackburn next weekend, Pearson will surely bolster his defensive line with the extra centre-back or the hosts may have a field day.
Sam Bell hung out to dry
You can't have any other feeling but sympathy for the youngster after that performance. In fairness to him, his previous two matches as a wing-back have been assured but he was hung out to dry against a Birmingham side who showed no mercy.
Pearson was staunch in his defence of Bell after the game, eager not to put any blame on the 19-year-old who was one of two casualties at half-time.
Firstly, to ask a striker to play in a defensive role in just his fourth league start for club is a risky strategy that was completely exposed in that opening 45 minutes.
His confidence evaporated as the game went on, summed up by sticking a simple pass up the line straight out of play. On another occasion, he looped a high ball straight out of play for a goal-kick.
There were positives, he made two or three really good crosses into the box that were just asking to be poked into the net but the forwards were on their heels leaving Pearson raging from the technical area.
He was offered no protection from his midfield players, Matty James and Joe Williams in particular who didn't have the mobility to backtrack and help out their team-mate when Blues were on the break. Tomas Kalas can also take some responsibility for failing to help him out having also appeared reluctant to pass it to him in deeper positions.
Pearson, rightly so, deflected all the blame onto his team-mates by saying: "Sam’s got nothing to be worried about, I took him off to protect him because his teammates didn’t protect him. Sam did alright but he didn’t get a lot of help did he?
"I said to him at halftime it was no reflection on him. Rather than say that the young lad didn’t play well, I didn’t think he had any help."
It was exactly the same as Cam Pring last weekend in the defeat at Nottingham Forest when he was subbed off at the break after Djed Spence tore him to pieces.
Bell's positioning was found wanting on numerous occasions but what can you expect from a player who is playing in an unfamiliar role?
Matty James/Joe Williams combo
The duo have only played together a handful of times this season due to injuries throughout the course of the campaign so it was a welcome opportunity to see how they would fare alongside each other.
Unfortunately, the hope and expectation would quickly fade. Whether it boils down to their attributes not complimenting each other or Pearson's tactics in the way he set them up, they struggled massively throughout.
James was too weak for the opening goal as Chong turned him in the box before finding the corner. He can be cut some slack considering he was making his first start since the beginning of January.
However, the pair were way too deep throughout the game leaving a huge amount of space between the midfield and attack which seriously stifled any forward advances.
Any pass into the forwards was made over 30-yards, there was no player able to break the lines and be the link-up between the two. Pearson said last weekend that his midfield failed to get hold of the ball and play it forward and it was a similar story yet again.
Not only did they struggle to provide creativity, defensively they just weren't at the races. James was playing as the deepest on the midfield trio and despite a couple of strong tackles, looked ponderous with the ball at his feet.
The problem was playing with a so-called diamond, is you need a strong defensive midfielder in the side to make the team tick. Somebody capable of breaking up play and moving the ball quickly.
James isn't that type of player and Pearson said it himself after the game that he doesn't have a defensive midfielder to work. When posed with the question, he responded: "Yeah, well we don’t really have any at the football club. We don’t have any."
Perhaps it would be jumping the gun to suggest Williams and James would find it difficult to play alongside each other but City certainly missed the energy of Han-Noah Massengo in midfield.
Pearson's less-than-subtle transfer message
City's financial troubles mean they won't be able to throw around the cash in the summer - shrewd business will be in order after posting the losses of £38.4m.
Pearson may well have his hands tied when it comes to signing players and the due diligence will be more important than ever in the grand scheme of things.
But it's clear to see that business has to be done and the manager must be crossing the days off on his calendar until he can offload a number of players and replace them with better players.
For weeks now he has been criticising certain players for individual errors with the likes of Zak Vyner and Callum O'Dowda finding themselves out of the side. He has also reiterated that there are too many players that can't perform consistently on a weekly basis and his patience has obviously run thin.
In his post-match press conference, he was quick to point out that there is plenty of work to be done in the transfer window, perhaps sending a message to the board that he needs funds or else the club will have little chance of progressing.
"There needs to be changes, there’s no doubt about that," were his comments speaking to the media. He later added: "It’s clear that we need to but whether we’re able to is another thing."
Pearson has always been adamant that he will only sign players that will improve his current existing crop of players but his first and possibly most difficult task will be to clear out the players that he doesn't see fit.
How much transfer value that will generate remains to be seen - although those coffers are likely to be boosted if one of the likes of Massengo, Antoine Semenyo or Alex Scott leaves.
But Pearson is making his point known that he needs cash to work with during the summer and has put pressure on owner Steve Lansdown to ensure he gets his wish.
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