Blues played a fairly standard line up apart from the welcome inclusion of prospect Charlee Adams. Even the ‘resting’ of Caddis is becoming predictable and it seems highly likely that this talented full back will leave Blues in the close season unless Gary Rowett leaves first. What he has done to fall out of favour, goodness only knows. Has he suggested that Rowett needs to ditch his V neck jumpers for a polo style or maybe hinted that his assistant Kevin Summerfield’s post match post mortem delivery could be marketed as the best ever cure for insomnia?

Other areas of predictability included the unpredictability of keeper Legdizis whose repertoire ranges from Banks-like brilliance to a fumbling of Tommy Cooper-like proportions. Added to this was the increasingly shorter cameo performances of prospect Otabor and the outstanding workrate of our sole genuine forward, Clayton D, unfortunately outside rather than inside the box.

In terms of the match, it was the usual case of Blues being under the cosh early on in both halves, taking the lead on the break and then spoiling everything by dropping the proverbial in defence to let in the opposition for their equaliser. Vaughan then came on and ran around in a tiresome fashion in terms of troubling the Cardiff defence but yet again fired more blanks than somebody making up for lost time post-vasectomy.

Where does this leave us? Well, in the same position actually and whilst that might represent a decent result given our paucity of resources, I’m not sure that I share the manager’s optimism for the next campaign. Losing possibly Caddis (self-inflicted), Cotterill possibly for a fee following a likely decent showing in the Euro Champs won’t help a squad already stretched in terms of numbers and talent. Add to that Rowett’s general reluctance to give promising youngsters a decent outing and an aging Donaldson expected to run around like a spring chicken when to continue to use the animal analogy, he’s more likely to end up in the knacker’s yard.