Andy Munro celebrates Blues avoiding relegation.
Despite ‘Arry’s mantra that we had to go for a win, I had a feeling either Brentford or Ipswich would come up trumps – how wrong I was on that score. Consequently the game lived up to its nerve-shredding, cliffhanging potential.
Blues’ team was unchanged and rightly so given the win against Huddersfield. The inclusion of Adams was, as we all know, a bonus as was having Clayton Donaldson on the bench. Backed by a sell-out away following, the team had a bright first half aided by an excellent goal by Che Adams, who showed both his pace and power when netting.
Unfortunately, in the second half, it was a different story as the Robins used the long ball and set pieces to try and make the most of their height both at the back going forward and up front. There were a few scares but Blues held out for yet another Harry Houdini production.
As we all know, it shouldn’t have come to this and that it was Gary Rowett’s replacement rather than the sacking itself which was nearly Blues’ downfall. In a vain effort not to lose face, bizarrely our faceless owners allowed Zola to continue well past his sell by date. To make matters even more bizarre they didn’t appear to have spoken to Harry about next season which seems a bit of an insult.
Either way, whoever’s in charge, the youngsters apart, we are faced with the problem of having a surfeit of competent but lower middle table Championship class players. On that basis, to take us forward, you would only keep Kuscak, Morrison, Belik (if the loan can be extended), Davies, Gardner (maybe), Frei, Keite (for his potential), Maghoma and Adams. There’s a big clearing out job to be done.