Drawing plenty of comfort

Blues draw at home to Rayo Vallecano as Andy Munro watches.

Blues undoubtedly saved their best pre-season performance for the match against undoubtedly the best opposition they had played so far, Rayo Vallecano from the Spanish top levele La Liga.

It was a competitive match which Blues should have, and deserved, to edge. Unfortunately new keeper John Ruddy was in fact ruddy awful as the saying goes, and certainly culpable for the howler that led to the opposition’s first goal. However, there were plenty of positives elsewhere in defence to balance his display.

At the back Marc Roberts, Dion Sanderson and new loan signing Auston Trusty looked confident and competent, with the latter two showing plenty of pace, which will be handy when the season commences. In front of them Ryan Woods was neat without
setting the world alight, but alongside him both Juninho Bacuna and Jordan James were influential throughout the game.

Out wide, Maxime Colin battled hard against a very decent Spanish wide man while Przemyslaw Plancheta, who isn’t a natural wingback, still did his chasing back studiously and looked quick and dangerous going forward, with his goal the icing on the cake.

Up front, Troy Deeney had a hand in both goals and Scott Hogan buzzed around assiduously but the fact that both our goals came from midfielders may say something about the cutting edge, or lack of it, up front.

Overall though, this was a performance to encourage Bluenoses going into the start of the league programme and next Saturday’s trip to Luton.