Another blue day

Andy Munro watches Blues lose to Huddersfield.

Now, let’s get things straight – I’m glad that Gary Roweet hasn’t moved to those that are considerably richer than us. However, at the same time, it’s got to the ridiculous stage where criticising him has become a sort of Blues blasphemy and tantamount to being a member of the rank and file Labour Party daring to criticise Jeremy Corbyn.

My grouse is that we were playing a team supposedly bereft of confidence and if ever 4-4-2 was called for, then this was the game. Instead, we played the raw Brock-Madsen up front on his own despite currently having the Teflon touch, the one man that could help him, Toral, out on a limb wide, and just one natural winger in Demi Gray. The latter is then immediately surrounded by a posse of defenders when he receives the ball with a Jonathan Grounds overlapping option nowhere in sight.

Just as bad, we tdrop the one full back who doesn’t get a nosebleed crossing the halfway line and leave in another who is suffering a crisis of confidence every time a winger looks him in the eyes. Everybody said an early goal was needed but unfortunately it came from the opposition after a comedy of errors in the Blues defence.

In truth, Blues could have been several goals down by the break as Huddersfield played us at our own counter attacking game. Our passing was woeful, our tackling tentative, and our width non existent. The only time we looked like scoring was through one piece of individualism by Gray and a cross almost converted by Brock-Madsen – lamentably the only proper cross in the first period.

Things failed to improve much in the second period even though the comparatively late introduction of Soloman-Otabor and Maghoma sparked a new lease of life. Toral was unluckily denied by the keeper but, in reality, we deserved nothing and that’s what we got.

Huddersfield rubbed it in with a second following another piece of Keystone Cops defending. Even Shinnie came on when, with Brock-Madsen off, it would have made sense instead, to introduce Greg Halford up front for the much vaunted cameo role that had been hinted at by Rowett.

In fairness, things weren’t helped by an appalling display of refereeing. This denied us at least one penalty and he even failed to see one of the most obvious deliberate back passes that you would ever see.

Still, we are now certainties for midtable mediocrity pending the return of the cavalry in the form of Donaldson and Cotterill but nonetheless this reality check was hard to take.