Andy Munro savours the continued St Andrews progress.
Despite our previous Ziggy inspired demo up at Elland Road several seasons ago, it’s never an easy ride up at Leeds whether you’re a player….. or a fan. However, it’s symptomatic of these current, comparatively rather pleasant, times of being a Blues fan that many of us were expecting another maximum points haul.
Gary Rowett, as usual, kept the same side and I suppose that the one drawback is that opposition managers can plan weeks in advance on the basis of our consistently unchanged side. On the other hand, after the recent times of Le Clark changing his side around to try and nullify the opposition, we are now confidently setting out our own stall and letting the opposition worry about us instead.
Donaldson continues to impress and, early doors(to use a Yorkie phrase), they couldn’t handle him, hence the Caddis spot kick. Obviously, it wasn’t all going to be plain sailing with the Leeds version of Morrison a bit of a handful. Our full backs also didn’t seem that comfortable and our midfield never really gained any ascendancy.
This all added up to a get down in the trenches/muck and bullets scenario. However the new Rowett footballing soap powder is admirably equipped to deal with this sort of thing and we repelled all boarders until the closing minutes when Leeds got an equaliser which, to be brutally frank, they deserved. The point we gained was mainly due to Blues keeping their shape better than Roman legionnaires in their invincible square formation. Maybe this is the footballing equivalent?
The point moves us up the table but I think our tremendous strides under Rowett has been the continuity a la Leicester last season. However, unfortunately that’s where the comparison ends. As I’ve oft said, Rowett is making our six out of ten players play eight out of ten and the burning question, during this transfer window, is whether he risks upsetting the BCFC footballing equilibrium by bringing in a couple of new faces. Currently, we look to be heading for an upper middle table position to which we realistically(?) aspired at the start of the season. If we dare to dream to ideas above this station, will it be a repeat of when Brucie tried to do the same in the Premier League with disastrous results?
If you asked most Blues fans what positions that they would like to see strengthened, they might be hard pressed to answer. For my part, I would probably go for the midfield although if I was churlish enough to criticise the manager, then I would probably take issue for not grooming the in-house talent that is Reece Brown as a shoe-in Shinnie alternative.
However, the bottom line is that good times appear to be back, in spite of the ownership shenanigans.
