BRUM IS BLUE!

Blues managed a 3-2 victory over League Leaders Coventry in a fantastic game that had everything, goals, jeopardy, passion and fight. An entertaining game all around showing a bit of tooth that has been missing of late, I got home fully entertained and most importantly Blues secured all 3 points.

I suppose first off, the thing with the Championship is everyone can beat everyone pretty much. It’s certainly part of the allure of the division and what makes it so exciting but it can also be a source of frustration. Especially when you’re on a run of bad results like Blues have been. One thing that a lot of fans have felt frustrated with, probably as far back as last season, is the obsession with maintaining possession, of “controlling the game” but achieving very little. Yesterday Blues had just 29% possession but controlled the game significantly better than in most of the last seven games.

One of our weakest link this season, and indeed even during this 3-2 victory, is James Beadle. I think it’s clear there must be a financial penalty for not playing him because that is the only justification for using him. I said at the start of the season he wasn’t good enough and he’s not proven me wrong at any point. He can’t catch a ball, he can’t send the ball down the pitch, he doesn’t instill any confidence in me or the players and personally I don’t think he should be anywhere near the squad let alone first choice. I personally think we need a replacement keeper in and need to send him back to Bournemouth where he can potentially get loaned out to a lower division club and work on his development because it feels like he’s a bit out his depth in this league.

So to the positives, the biggest one for me was the instant impact that Kai Wagner had. He looks a fantastic signing and to begin your Blues career with an assist within minutes hopefully indicates a positive future. He was energetic throughout and offered a pace we’ve been lacking down that left hand side, no disrespect to Cochrane. It does then lead to the question, will Cochrane be able to make his way back into the starting line-up?

Ducksch took some stick at Watford from a fan in the away end, which is a bit baffling really as he’s our second best striker, but he certainly silenced his critics with that first goal. A fantastic assist from Wagner that resulted in a quality goal surely putting to rest (For now) any doubt about the Man of the Matches ability. Could it be the German hook up is the key to getting the best out of Ducksch? I certainly hope so because if we can get more performances like that from him we will surely bang a few more goals in going forward.

I could mention several players who impressed and a couple of subs that disappointed. For me the drop off of Willumsson is a shame, I really liked him last season but even after he returned from injury he was a different player and he’s not found any form since. I think we’re at last roll of the dice stages with him and ultimately I may have to admit that he’s just not good enough (Which when the time comes I’ll do in damming fashion no doubt) but I hope things just click.

Another player I want to single out, simply because there’s a few fans who want to see more of him, is Fujimoto who came on right near the death. From what I hear he is meant to be a quality player and to be fair once he came on he seemed to spark something in Kyogo as well. It’s an odd one as I personally don’t know a lot about him but if we’re not going to use him why did we buy him? Maybe we’ll see more of him in the FA Cup and if he can force his way into the squad maybe it’s the key to get a few more goals.

All in all it’s a great result that keeps Play Off ambition alive. I can’t sign off without complaining about the referee though, another agent of the opposition although Lampard was crying that the ref couldn’t give the 50/50 penalty decision their way. I would too considering Lamps guy had handed them free kicks for tripping over their own feet but you can only ignore flying challenges and inflicting head injuries so much before you have to give one decision the home teams way, otherwise it’s far too obvious!

Blues next home game is 24th January so one thing is for sure, we need to mirror this performance on the road. If we can string a few results together we will fly up the table and that is the most important thing!