Birmingham Legion fans endured another frustrating night at Protective Stadium as the Three Sparks failed to beat Colorado Springs Switchbacks, the bottom team in the Western Conference.

For the second time in the last three home games, Legion faced the West’s then-bottom-dwellers off a morale-boosting win. For the second time, they failed to get any real attacking intent going and fell to a 1-0 home loss.

With the 0-0 Charleston Battery draw in between the two, that’s now three consecutive home games without a goal.

“It just felt like we never really got going,” Mark Briggs said. “Had spells where we looked dangerous, get into good positions and then make bad decisions in the final third.

“The decision making, the attitude tonight, it just wasn’t there,” he added.

It was an unsurprising turn of events for a Legion team that has made a habit of poor performances against lower-ranked teams. Of the seven games played against teams currently outside the playoff spots, the Three Sparks have one win and four losses.

“100% it’s a mentality thing,” Briggs said before recalling the previous time it happened against Oakland Roots. “You had a great performance against Sacramento on Wednesday. You come here against Oakland who at that point were bottom of the league. We’ve had a couple of good performances and we think we can turn up and just win.

“I feel like the same’s happened tonight,” he continued. “But you’re playing against a really good team. You’re playing against a team that won the championship last year. But our guys think we’ve played two games really well, we’ve had good performances. We think we can just turn up and perform.

“It’s the same story every time. We put ourselves in a good position, and then the attitude, the mindset isn’t right and we never grab a hold of the opportunity that’s in front of us.”

Despite the negative outing, Birmingham had looked bright in the early exchanges. But after failing to trouble the Switchbacks’ goalkeeper in that opening period, the team soon lost its attacking energy.

The visitors, on the other hand, went from strength to strength. They could have had a penalty called in their favor halfway though the half when a cross appeared to hit Tiago Suárez’s hand. Then in the 38th minute, only heroic defending from Jake Rufe and AJ Paterson prevented them taking the lead.

A direct ball over the top found a Switchbacks attacker through on goal. After Fernando Delgado, currently enjoying a run of starts due to an injury to Matt van Oekel, failed to fully kill the attack, Paterson did enough to put off the second shooter. Rufe ran onto the loose ball and cleared it off the goal line, colliding with the post for his troubles.

It was by far the most notable event of an otherwise uninspired first half.

“I thought we started the game extremely well,” Briggs said. “But then they have one opportunity where they put us on the back foot, and you saw the group. You saw the energy completely go, and fear crept it.

“Now anxiety creeps in, and you’re not performing. You’re not playing. You’re not even running. And that’s what happened, that’s what you saw.”

After regrouping at the half, Birmingham came out with renewed intent at the beginning of the second 45.

Stephen Turnbull forced a save from the Switchbacks goalkeeper in the 52nd minute. Sebastian Tregarthen found space down the flank in the 59th, but his cross was just behind the players in the box.

Edwin Laszo sent Tyler Pasher through on goal in the 60th, but the Canadian inexplicably cut back onto his left, allowing defenders to get back in between himself and the goal. His eventual curled effort was well wide of the post.

“If you don’t put the ball in the back of the net, you don’t win games,” Mark Briggs said of the second half’s opening 15 minutes. “But the 15 minutes comes from when we have a go at them at halftime. When we get a reaction then.

“But you’re a professional footballer,” he continued. “You have the opportunity tonight to jump up the league a couple of places, put ourselves solidly in a playoff position. And we don’t.”

By the hour mark, the game reverted to the first half’s norm. The Switchbacks reclaimed the ascendency and would have gone ahead in the 68th minute if not for a brilliant Delgado save from a point-blank header.

Legion continued to threaten to create chances, but the final pass or decision kept lacking.

The visitors finally made them pay in the 83rd minute. Marco Micaletto found time and space to turn on the edge of the box and sent a low-driven shot into the bottom corner of the goal.

Despite an immediate double-change in the wake of the goal, Birmingham never looked like equalizing. Part of that came from the Switchbacks’ time wasting tactics, with the home crowd getting increasingly frustrated at the time the visiting goalkeeper took to put the ball back in play.

That goalkeeper also went down with a “cramp” shortly after his team’s goal. One of the team’s assistant coaches had ran over to him minutes before to instruct him to do just that.

But despite all the frustration at Colorado Springs’ negative tactics, Birmingham cannot claim they deserved anything from the game. As has been far too common this season, the team failed to show up for a home game and killed all the momentum they were building.

“[The home performances are] obviously something that was spoken about before, and now I’m feeling it,” Briggs said. “I don’t know what happens with our guys. But we have to find the energy that we have on the road, the attitude and mindset that we have on the road.

“We have to bring that here,” he added. “It’s got nothing to do with whether you’re playing at home or playing away. You can’t just turn it on and off. And right now, too many players turn it on and off.”

With three of the team’s next four games set to take place at Protective Stadium, the Three Sparks will need to fix their home form soon.

Their next encounter is a crucial game against Forward Madison in the USL Jägermeister Cup. Though the team should win on paper, they have made it abundantly clear that that means nothing if the performance doesn’t live up to the standards.

“When your attitude’s not right, when your mentality’s not right, you get slapped in the face,” Briggs said. “And I’m sick of being slapped in the face because mindsets aren’t right, attitudes aren’t right.”

Birmingham Legion are back in action at 7 p.m. July 26. They host Forward Madison in the final game of the USL Jägermeister Cup group stage.

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