Bubble bursts as Blues run ends
Features | admin | November 8, 2011 at 10:05 am
Blues 9 match unbeaten run (TOM ROSS PLEASE NOTE –9 Match Run) ended at the scene of one of the clubs greatest triumphs when Alex McLeish dragged a bits and pieces team of loaners and players on their last legs over the finish line. Chris Hughton, and I am not trying to further the “who is the better manager debate”, has a similar bunch but his brand of football failed on Sunday.
Ironically I would nominate this performance as the brightest of the season with excellent build up play and almost rock solid defending. Chris has a problem in that he is relying on a young player who is not even his to score the goals. Chris Wood, who a loon on BRMB described as the new Shearer, is going through a dry patch. He saw his best effort brilliantly saved by Federici when he tested the home keeper from 20 yards. The keeper also kept out a header that Wood should have buried.
In the second half Wood was presented with an open goal when a header from home defender Korkes his own post. Wood is not the slickest and failed to manage his bulk and his off balance effort flew over.
Wood although belonging to another is committed to the club that now pays his wages. That cannot be said for all those wearing their colours. I will leave you to work out who I am talking about but if you can’t its Ridgewell. Liam who overcame his Vile background to be the most accomplished and dedicated Blues defender now looks totally disinterested. He failed to track his winger and allowed the cross which was netted by hall with his first touch. His frequent forays down the left wing inevitably ended with a poor cross which not even Blues giant forwards could get near.
Thus Chris Hughton has big problems. Anyone can get beat but yesterday’s was careless as Blues could not come up with that telling pass which would open up the opposition. Defensively we have three of the best defenders in the division. We have an ever improving goalkeeper who is more committed to the cause than the guy who we swapped him for is to West Brom. An eight hour plus run without conceding a goal is testimony to that. Worryingly after scoring in every league game Blues have blanked in the last two.
It the manager’s debate it was ironic that Chris Hughton was guilty of something that McLeish was continually pilloried for i.e. acting too late. The late subs Zigic and Redmond should have been earlier.
Blues were already a goal down when they appeared and neither had a significant touch until injury time.
We go now into the international break, a rest which Blues seem to need badly. It’s annoying however, that we have to wait 13 days to put this result right.
By Alan Watton
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are you a vile fan in diguise or just another moaning minny
I suppose it was really inevitable wasn’t it? After such a good run of results – against the odds and, with some really enjoyable football to watch, Blues lose a match and immediately we get stories about burst bubbles and analysis of all the faults we have in the present squad.
No more do we consider Wood to be a bright prospect that we should do everything in our power to keep hold. We have lost a game so, he is relegated to being a young player that isn’t even ours. He is now “not the slickest player” and has trouble managing his bulk.
Just for good measure, we’ll have a go at Ridgewell for not being committed to the club. (Pay a bit of lip-service to his previous efforts for the Blues, to make sure no-one thinks we are unjustly singling out any individual and, there, in a nutshell, we have summed up the start of our downfall)
(to be continued)
(continued)
Also, pay a bit of lip-service to the fact that “anyone can be beat” but make sure to announce that this was not the match in which we should have been beaten and, this then gives us the opportunity to question the manager’s substitution tactics.
I wonder how long ago this article was actually written and how many weeks you have been waiting for the opportunity to publish it. That may sound like a harsh accusation to make but, to write an article like this after just one defeat does seem a bit of an over reaction.
The lads have had an extremely hectic time over the last few weeks and yet they have been proved more than worthy, let’s give them a bit of slack before we start hanging them out to dry.