Behind Closed Doors

Andy Munro comments on Blues’ goalless draw away at Albion.

It’s sometimes said that exciting things happen behind closed doors, but this certainly wasn’t the case at the Hawthorns, where perhaps thankfully there wasn’t a watching crowd.

Blues nullified a talented Baggies side, but unfortunately showed very little ambition themselves. However, it was a great point to earn and keeps the team still a decent distance from the dog eat dogfight below us.

To pick players out in such a backs to the wall performance isn’t difficult as it had to be the defence, with Harley Dean and Jake Clarke-Salter the pick, ably supported by Wes Harding (despite some wayward distribution) and the ever-calm Maxime Colin.

Yet, if I were to pick one player it would actually be the Juke ,who was a selfless target man holding up play as he got battered and bruised by frustrated the Baggies defenders, all the while buying time as he waited for support. Jude Bellingham showed touches of real class, but with Blues constantly on the back foot he rarely got the chance to shine.

Still, without three first teamers and with a paperthin squad, this was a good result. Jet’s hope that Pep now tells his players to give it a real go in the rest of the games – something that the apparently shortlisted Nigel Clough likes to see from his teams.