A new blue year beckons?

Blues go down to QPR with Andy Munro watching.

Queens Park Rangers rode into town and collected all three points as we sunk further into the relegation mire that beckons. Yet it was a slightly undeserved victory, with Blues having more possession and shots although tellingly Rangers had more shots on target.

Rangers opened the scoring through ex-Villa man Albert Adomah, who then made a big show of putting his fingers up to the Tilton and generally goading the crowd; how he didn’t go into the ref’s notebook will forever remain a mystery. His team then scored a second through the impressive Willock, who incidentally cost less than a million quid, showing you don’t have to spend big. Those transfer snips are out there but, of course, it doesn’t help finding them if you’ve sacked your scouting staff to save money.

Anyway, Blues were far more offensive in the second half and Chuks Aneke (sometimes perhaps a bit unfairly a figure of fun for his ungainliness) hammered home a goal after having one off the line. Unfortunately he then reverted to type when he blasted over what should have been a deserved equaliser.

In terms of forgettable performances, Juan Castillo was the star performer with Craig Gardner also having the proverbial mare. At the back, Kristian Pedersen too often lost his man and if we can get a couple of million for him, then I would snap the hand of anybody offering that sort of figure. Apart from a mistake that led to a goal, George Friend was the pick at the back and although Dion Sandersen was also decent, he looks as if he’s returning to the Wolves anyway.

In midfield, Ivan Sunjic was as wasteful in his distribution as he was busy but on the plus side, undoubtedly the star of the show was young Jordan James, who was both strong and creative. Also a word on Ryan Woods, who came on to have an excellent second half spraying the ball around in impressive fashion and up top Aneke, who probably had his best appearance as a substitute since he signed.

Overall it was a heartening performance despite the result and I still think Lee Bowyer can turn things around given two or three astute signings in the transfer window. Hope springs eternal.