Wednesday woes on Saturday

Andy Munro on Blues’ defeat in Sheffield.

Repeat after me at least half a dozen times – “We are an average upper mid-table side with all the inconsistencies that accompany the tag. We might flirt with the play offs but it will remain the sort of flirting where a Premier League consummation is never going to be anything, in the foreseeable future, more than a complete fantasy”.

Wednesday are and always seem to have been a robust, physical team and it was always on the cards that we might be swept away and that players like Niheu would provide our central defence with unsolvable problems.

While Jonathan Spector has undeniably played his part in our recent mini-run, it’s long term consistency that’s the test and Spector will have several decent games before lapsing, with unfortunate results. The same can be said of Jonathan Grounds and, in midfield, we undeniably missed the reborn Stephen Gleeson. There were one or two plus points in that we looked fairly untroubled for the first half hour but once we conceded critically and criminally two quick goals, the game seemed – and was – irretrievable ,with the added handicap of our penetration up top making the barrier of the proverbial paper bag looking like a bag for life.

At least one plus point was the return of the Don and yet another decent cameo by Soloman-Otabor. Surely, the time is right to rest the increasingly ineffective Demarai Gray and give his even younger understudy a run out. That doesn’t mean that I would want to see us lose the still emerging talents of Gray and despite his recent lukewarm performances I hope that we can hang onto him. Having said that, receiving a £5 million cheque, with add ons, wouldn’t be a disaster.

Let’s hope that we can resume our ‘new’ home form against MK Dons, a club who are wrestling with their own trials and tribulations.