Andy Munro watches Birmingham City go out of the FA Cup to Leicester City.
Leicester admittedly had the luxury of being able to rest some players but Blues dominated the first half to such an extent that they had triple the amount of shots and if it had been a boxing match, it would surely have been stopped by the referee.
Unfortunately, Blues weren’t clinical enough in front of goal with Jay Stansfield surprisingly the main culprit. Typically we were made to pay when that old fox (literally) Jamie Vardy scored the opener for the home side. Very soon afterwards Blues spurned a good opportunity to equalise and yet again, Leicester showed Blues how to finish with a second – the third in the closing stages was academic.
Despite the loss, there were a number of reasons to be cheerful. Blues’ absolute dominance in the first half, the fact that we were unlikely to progress far in the cup and, to use that old adage, we can now concentrate (ie getting to mid-table safety) in the league!
It also highlighted our lack of depth; not so much the fact of having to play young, inexperienced players such as Romelle Donovan but that the lack of depth is around senior players who can’t cut the mustard any more – namely Scott Hogan, Emanuel Aiwu and Oliver Burke, all three of them a waste of wages. On the plus side, Ethan Laird showed what an asset he can be in a first half cameo whilst Keshi Anderson (despite not netting) showed that he could be the partner up front for Stansfield once he gets completely up to speed and fully match-fit.
There are certainly some reasons to be cheerful.