BRUM IS BLUE!

Well what a game on Saturday! It was the biggest victory of the season so far, it was the performance we’d all been craving and it even looked like maybe we might have found our strongest 11.

I’ll be honest, going into the game Saturday I wasn’t particularly excited, it felt a lot like the old days when you’re just expecting them to mess up or fail to dominate. It was a team we should have beat in the manner we did but that usually spells a draw or a very boring 1-0, this was my prediction, I didn’t dare to dream of anything higher than 2 goals. It easily could have been five or six!

Blues were at it from the off, the energy was electric and Portsmouth just couldn’t handle us, we were pressing high and Ducksch was unlucky to have not found the back of the net in the first couple of minutes. Blues kept the pressure up and were rewarded with a penalty not long after which surprisingly wasn’t converted by Stanno and the rebound didn’t find the back of the net. At this early stage in the game I was both excited and internally in bits, the way we were attacking the game was at this early stage some of the best I’d seen us play all season, but the usual storyline of missed chances loomed ahead and we’ve all been here many times before as Bluenoses.

It took only 9 minutes for Blues to be rewarded for their efforts as Paik managed to bag the first goal for Blues. His volley was put out for a corner which he then managed to bang in off his head. This is the point as Blues fan we start dreaming that we can convincingly win a game so of course the foot came off the gas for Blues as we came towards the last 10ish minutes of the first half. We’ve seen this story before and all I was hoping was that we wouldn’t slip up and concede before the break.

The most concerning thing in the first half was when Roberts, who had shone throughout the half, seemingly the driver of all forward routes, took a knock and was substituted off for Keshi Anderson. Given how impressive Roberts was, Anderson took the opportunity and nearly instantly found himself on the scoresheet.

The second half saw the ball hit the back of the net three (Well four) times, Iwata and Klarer being two defenders to find their name on the board while Anderson managed that goal he deserved. It was a game with very little to fault, Blues showed why there was such a buzz around our chances at the start of the season.

Blues gave their all from start to finish, yes there was the spell I alluded to when they looked a bit nervy, maybe even a little tired, but it was really everything I’d hope from Blues. The fact that we’d struggled to achieve anything from set pieces recently (probably for the last two seasons), yet all four goals came from a set piece just reflects the work that Davies spoke off in the build up to the game. It was a criticism that had been placed at his feet as well as defending opponents set pieces, there was no such concerns yesterday.

That said, yesterday wasn’t devoid of incidents. The stand out incident for Blues was the dispute between Klarer and Beadle which saw the Captain give the young shot stopper a right bollocking for not collecting the ball off him quick enough. It was the second incident in the space of ten minutes when Beadle had refused his Captains call so you could understand Klarer’s frustration, that said if Beadle wasn’t confident enough to come off his line and collect it surely Klarer should have been trusting his keepers instincts and just got the ball out.

One that’s not so much an incident but Kyogo saw another goal scratched off. I can’t help feeling sorry for the former Celtic player, you get the feeling that once he finds the net properly it will be the key to unlock his future performances. His football IQ is unreal, he gets in the right places, he sets himself up for nice little link ups but I just feel that perhaps it’s not quite there in reality vs the training pitch.

Finally, I’m going to leave on a negative note. The officiating against Blues seems to be a shambles, I don’t follow enough of the other teams in the Championship to know if it’s an issue across the board or if it’s an issue that seems to be worse against Blues but I feel yesterday Blues were up against 11 players and the ref. In previous games this has cost us, you feel he tried to make it all about him and cost us again with his blind eyes to Stanno and Gray being man handled, but look at a Portsmouth player the wrong way and it was a free kick against us. Klarer’s yellow was far too soft as well but Kitchen wanted to make sure we knew he was going to be as inept as possible.

All in all it leave me looking forward very much to Tuesday under the lights as we take on Millwall. A win again then would put Blues within touching distance of the Play Offs, we just need to string a run together now!