Blues win again, at home to Wigan Athletic. Andy Munro reports.
Blues’ persistence eventually paid off to secure a narrow win in injury-time but this was never plain sailing against a well-drilled Wigan side. In fact whilst the Blues had almost twice the possession stats, Wigan played some decent football before being undone in the closing stages.
Admittedly, Blues started off the more dominant team and it was no surprise when a superb through ball found Alfie May, who nipped in to score with his usual aplomb.
Unfortunately, the team then took their foot off the gas, particularly in the second period and Wigan probably deserved their equaliser even though it came from an horrific blunder from Bailey Peacock-Farrell (or should that be Cockup-Farrell?).
However, in front of him the central defenders were superb with the dominant Christophe Klarer having a claim to being man of the match whilst out wide Alex Cochrane impressed yet again.
Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Ethan Laird on the other flank and there was almost a sigh of relief when he went off injured. Incidentally, Alfons Stampsted, the Icelandic full-back, was a substantial improvement as a direct replacement when he came on.
In fairness to Chris Davies, he made substitutions at the right time to inject more urgency and perhaps the most telling presence was Ayumu Yokoyama who was a box of tricks down the left hand side. He was certainly an upgrade over Sontje Hansen, who at times had struggled to make an impact on a resolute opposition defence.
Marc Leonard also made a big difference with his urgency when replacing a fading Luke Harris. The aerial presence of Dykes also set a new problem for a Wigan defence who were under increasing pressure but it was new arrival Scott Wright who provided the winner smashing a shot into the roof of the net to finish off a goalmouth melee.
This was by no means a vintage performance, but still a valuable three points as a much-changed set of players are still making their acquaintance.
