Andy Munro gives us a fan’s-eye view of Blues’ defeat at the hands of Newcastle.
This is the type of headline beloved by sportswriters but unfortunately, in this case it wasn’t true because Newcastle thoroughly deserved to win. Typically for Blues, the scene was set fair for a third back to back win watched by a decent sized crowd (by our recent disappointing standards).
With Obafemi Martins up front, we all hoped he would do the sort of thing to Newcastle that most ex players seem to do to Blues Yet within two minutes we were a goal down – a goal, incidentally, that I missed due to a massive queue to a turnstile manned by a geriatric operator who couldn’t work out his computer scanner properly. Later seen on TV, the goal was a slack one with Peter Lovenkrands(who must be about 82) proving quicker to react than the Blues defence to poke the ball home.
We were generally mediocre in all areas with the exception being Stephen Carr who maintained his usual high standard. What was worrying was the fact that Leon Best, at best (if you’ll excuse the pun) is a mediocre centre forward but aerially looked like a cross between Alan Shearer and Andy Carroll, virtually winning every ball in the air. Ridgewell looked uncomfortable at left-back and the centre of the midfield never sparked. Craig Gardner was off the pace while Barry Ferguson’s forward passing to the forwards was distinctly poor.
The forwards themselves looked disjointed with Ziggy reverting to ‘ponderous’ mode and his layoffs inaccurate. His striking partner Obafemi Martins showed some wonderful touches but these were mostly by the halfway line and in terms of communication, he was on short wave with Ziggy still on long wave.
Despite all this tide of mediocrity (Carr and Bentley apart),Blues made enough chances to secure at least a point from the game but were extremely wasteful in front of goal. Ziggy headed an open goal opportunity over the bar, Johnson fired a header direct at the keeper whilst Cameron Jerome was in his usual barn door mode when he sliced a shot well wide with the goal gaping.
In fairness, Newcastle have had some excellent results but the annoying thing is that, on paper, they are now a fairly average side and certainly no better than Blues. One worrying factor is that we started very slowly agai n(how often has that been said this season?) and if we do that against Arsenal, the game will be over well before half-time. However, last night proved that it’s a funny old game so maybe we’ll have the last laugh against the Gunners.
