Andy Munro watches Blues concede a late equaliser against Cardiff City.
A win at home to Cardiff was vital with in-form Blackburn and classy Fulham lying in wait, so garnering only one point doesn’t augur well for Blues’ league position, particuarly when we could have got all three.
In fairness, a draw was probably the right result based on the match overall and, yet again, we started painfully slowly and Cardiff could have been out of sight in the first twenty minutes. However, we grew into the game and both our first half goals were a result of some really slick play. The first was finished off with class by Troy Deeney and the second on the half-time was a surprisingly neat finish by ivan Sunjic when Blues fans in the Merrick stand were ducking ready for the ball to balloon over the bar, as per usual.
This should have signalled a second half cruise but this is Blues we’re talking about and a mix-up between the otherwise impressive Jordan James and Jordan Graham let the visitors back into the game. As expected, the footballing grim reaper was there at the death for Cardiff to snatch a deserved share of the points.
However, there were some good performances for the Blues namely an impressive matija Sarkic, a non-stop Sunjic and classy performances from James and particularly Riley McGree – how the latter will be missed whe he returns to the MLS next month. Up top, Deeney and Scott Hogan battled away but service wasn’t the best against Cardiff’s giant defenders and Hogan particularly struggled. Sub Chuks Aneke was unlucky not to net but once we conceded one goal a draw was always on the cards.
We can only hope for a surprise result in the next two games unless we want to sink towards the mire in familiar Blues style as Christmas beckons.