D-ef-ying Swans

Andy Munro watches Blues’ goalless draw at home to Swansea City.

How Blues didn’t win a match we totally dominated I can’t really work out, although this was partly due to the brilliance of the Swansea keeper and some last-ditch defending.

We came out of the blocks like a footballing version of Usain Bolt and continued like that for the whole game, apart from a brief five minute spell at the start of the second half. In fact it was a display reminiscent of our defining win against Fulham on the last day of last season.

This was high-tempo stuff with the bustling Jutkiewicz and the powerful and quick Bogle giving the Swansea defence nightmares. They were ably supported by the trickery of Jota and Maghoma bamboozling the opposition defence and, on that note, it was good to see the former at last hit last season’s end of term form.

In the middle, Gary Gardner and Kleftenbeld looked a good combination with the Dutchman snapping into tackles and Gardner doing likewise. In the latter case, he also showed the sort of creativity and energy sadly missing from his sibling’s recent games. Admittedly, there was some rather dark chuntering going on behind the Tilton at half-time about his previous connections but, to me, if he does the business in blue I’ve no issues.

Just as importantly, the defence looked admirably solid and Lee Camp , whilst relatively untested, looked a composed figure. Substitutions gave young Charlie Lakin a chance along with Che Adams who again didn’t completely convince in his cameo.

While it was two points dropped, the season is still young and, for me, it was a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable evening which can’t be bad having being bored almost into snooze mode by Messrs Rowett, Zola and Cotterill.