Andy Munro watches Blues’ 1-0 defeat at home to Wolves.
In fairness, it was a tale of two halves with Wolves easily controlling the first period with some exceptional running off the ball from midfield which Ndoye et al can only dream about. However Blues made a decent fist of it in the second half but to no avail.
Wolves opening goal was a gift from Grounds and Bonatini predictably netted despite some heroics from Stockdale. From the back of the Tilton, it looked a Russian linesman job but the goal was given despite being cleared off/behind the line. However, in that rocky first half the Blues were profligate in their defence with the shambolic Roberts the main culprit and even Stockdale joined the ‘give the ball away’ club.
The back three formation seemed to confuse the three centre halves who were all over the place, none more so than Harley Dean who seemed to sleepwalk his way into midfield before being shown a red for some alleged argy bargy. In truth despite the lengthy rest period between games, Blues looked terribly jaded and too often were devoid of attacking ideas, content to play the ball backwards and sideways.
The introduction of Gleeson for the ineffective Jota changed things a fair bit (did I think that I would ever be complimenting Steve Gleeson in this way?) and Cotterill must have given Jutkiewicz a rocket because he started to play with a bit of vigour before being subbed for a strangely subdued Adams. Davis also came on to put himself about but, in reality Blues needed to have brought on a winger to provide some attacking width and decent crosses – Nsue and Grounds to take note.
Boga continued to have a decent game although often he ran down blind alleys due to the lack of passing options. Yet despite some decent second half possession like the fairy tale in reverse, Blues huffed and puffed but couldn’t blow the Wolves’ house down.
