Lambs to the slaughter

Blues are knocked out of the FA Cup by Manchester City as Andy Munro watches.

If this had been a cricket match then Manchester City would probably have declared at half-time, and some might say that this is what they effectively did after looking like they might rack up a score that Ben Stokes would have been proud of.

Blues might look on this as a moral victory, keeping a clean sheet in the second half, but you would need a vintage pair of blue and white spectacles to take such a view.

However, there were a couple of bright spots with a cameo display from Jeremie Bela and robust performances from San Jose and (when he came on) Marc Roberts. Yet there was little else to shout about with the normally reliable (if that word can be used with any of the current group of players) Kleftenbeld and Sunjic being overwhelmed in midfield.

Up front it was the usual story of a hopeless Scott Hogan desperately needing support but getting little from a misfiring Toral and an inconsistent Leko, who threatens so much but achieves so little.

At least we can now concentrate on the league and avoiding the relegation, trapdoor but that in itself is a depressing scenario when one considers we were recently whipped by Derby, who in turn were bundled out of the cup this weekend by non-league Chorley. Those are results which certainly puts things depressingly in perspective.