Andy Munro watches Blues go down to Middlesbrough.
To be honest, Blues were lucky to get away with a two-nil defeat against a Boro side who have probably spent even less on their new signings than we have.
The performance was completely lacklustre apart from a ten minute purple patch when we could and should have taken the lead.
It would be easy to blame the Blues defence but they got precious little help from a midfield who were at times over-run as Boro’s midfield ran at will at the home side’s exposed back four. Whilst the youngster Nico Gordon scored an unfortunate own goal that he could do little about he was, again, one of the few bright points.
Marc Roberts was reasonable defensively although his distribution was erratic and probably the pick was Jordan Graham, who did okay defensively and also found time to send in a stream of crosses.
Tehen Mengi went off injured but to be honest every time the ball came over the top he looked in panic mode often fouling the player he was marking. Finally, Kristian Pedersen got himself sent off, which was justice for losing his man. The Dane seems to only really move after the ball has been kicked with zero anticipation.
In the middle, the pick of a poor bunch was Gardner with Ryan Woods looking like little boy lost as he was outpowered in midfield. The less said about Taylor Richards the better as he obviously things he’s too good for the muck and bullets of the Championship… Pity he didn’t show it.
Up front, Onel Hernandez probably received one pass in the first period and the service was so slow, he was surrounded by a posse of players by the time the ball had been painfully worked to him. Beside him the Juke did what he knows best these days, knocking the ball on to a non-existent partner.
On this performance it’s thankful that we probably only need one win to be safe but with so many loanees the question is ‘Do they care?’.
