Andy Munro on Blues’ win at Port Vale.
Blues at last ground out their first friendly win against league opposition , almost a disappointment in my case as I had already decided my headline following another likely Blues loss was Blues Go to Pot(teries).
In fact, the surprise of the positive result seems to have been due to a second half rousting from Gary Rowett, who apparently did his utmost to wake he team up from their pre-season slumbers. His comment that it’s sometimes difficult for players to be motivated cuts no ice in my view. If that’s the case, let’s have challenging and exciting friendlies against Premier League or other top-level teams from home and abroad rather than the Crewe Alexandras of the football world.
To compound it, Clayton Donaldson uttered a sort of footballing version of “Don’t panic Captain Mainwaring” about our recent turgid displays, when he needs to look at himself as he is easily being outscored by rookie Jack Storer. In fact, it was only the introduction of the youngsters in the second half which galvanised the win. Mind you, as I have commented ad nauseum, Caddis seems to be the fall guy when others are far more culpable commitment-wise. This time Caddis was moved to left back – maybe Rowett will finally move him to centre forward, criticise him for not winning the ball enough in the air and then drop him from the squad.
Certainly, Blues have been less than impressive and new blood who are up for a challenge is surely needed. According to the Mail, there are a number of such ‘hungry’ players being courted and we certainly need a shake up. It would also be nice to see the likes of Storer, Cogley the Scouse new boy Deakin and Reece Brown following Otabor as regular names on the first team squad rota. Unfortunately, apart from Reece-Brown, this seems unlikely given Rowett’s usual caginess when push comes to shove.
Still maybe Clayton D will be proved right and when the serious stuff begins, it will all work out…