Andy Munro reports on Blues’ games against Nottingham Forest.
I suppose that it had to happen sometime, but coming after two great away performances and bolstered by a fit again Ziggy and two more than useful looking signings ,it was still a nasty shock. In fairness, Blues last few home performances have been a bit below par but we had escaped relatively unscathed.
However, this time we were well beaten by a Forest team whose performance completely belied their lowly position. Despite a reasonably bright few opening minutes, Blues were never really at the races in the first half and I can’t even remember them having a serious shot. Meanwhile, at the other end, Forest went close several times before deservingly taking the lead.
Basically, Blues passing was uncharacteristically wayward and the malaise seemed to run through the entire team with Blues also looking defensively frail. Even the usually reliable Murphy had a torrid time while covering and attack-wise never really worked out any effective linking play with new boy Townsend. Caldwell was probably the pick of the bunch at the back but they failed to receive any cover from an outworked midfield. Mutch showed that he is still work in progress and was far too casual at times; he’s a player who likes to exploit space and seems only half the performer when pressurised. Fahey battled away manfully but was never able to provide the forwards with any semblance of decent service.
The second half was a slight improvement, although generally Blues huffed and puffed until good work from Marlon King led to a great equalising Chris Burke curler. In fact, Burke got man of the match presumably due to the goal because his general performance was, at best, mediocre as he was well marshalled by an impressive Forest full-back. Unfortunately we conceded a second when Mutch yet again dwelt too long on the ball and was dispossessed for Forest to open up the Blues defence.
To my mind, the best player was Marlon King – who has recently replaced Fahey as the target for the mindless boo boys. He was a constant thorn in the Forest defence and, at last, showed the form that was evident when playing for Coventry against Roger J & co. This was particularly important given a particularly pedestrian performance from Ziggy, who had one of his ‘useless big lump’ displays. In terms of the new boys, Townsend became increasingly influential, noticeably when he stayed out wide and the Norwegian, Huseklepp, while taking time to settle, showed some great trickery near the end without making the final breakthrough.
It’s not a disaster and it’s how we bounce back that matters. However I still stick by my prediction that we’ll make the play offs but not the automatic. It would be bizarre if we ended up with another TWO trips to Wembley.
