Andy Munro on Blues latest awayday adventure.
If there was a hat-eating Olympic event then I would undoubtedly have gold medal potential after Jordan Mutch’s impressive performance against Burnley. Undoubtedly he had one of his most influential games ever for Blues and this was all the more laudable when his fellow central defender N’Daw was again not quite ‘at it’.
With the Clarets winning easily (5-1) at Pompey where we failed to register, it seemed that we would be meeting them (typically Blues, luck-wise) at entirely the wrong time.
Yet things started promisingly when King cemented his top scorer tag with a well taken opener. In fact, without really breaking sweat in the first period we could have put some clear ground between ourselves and our opponents. It was also good to see the ever-combative Wade Elliott rewarded for his consistency with a run out against his old club. Mind you, at the time I did wonder whether we could afford to have a couple of game turning flair players like Townsend and Redmond on the bench.
However the second period saw a change around as Burnley, even without their two leading goalscorers, started to turn the screw, bringing on ex-Hammer Stanislas to extend ‘stand in’ full back Ramage. After a fairly torrid opening period in the second half, the inevitable equaliser came only to be nullified by ‘man of the moment’ Mutch who scored with a spectacular shot. It then became a bit of a Blues Cruise with that man Murphy gleefully popping up in the box to make the game well and truly safe. It seems to be more than a coincidence that Blues’ mini-resurgence has generally coincided with Murphy’s return- so also roll on the return of either Spector or Carr.
We now have, in effect, a four point lead on the chasing play off pack due to an excellent goal difference and things are definitely looking up. Yet in darker times who would have thought Ziggy would become a continual menace with his flick ons, that Marlon King would score goals like he was still at Cov, or that Mutch would be the new Glen Hoddle? And maybe some more myth busting awaits…..
