Blues beat Swindon in the EFL Trophy, with Andy Munro reporting.
It was hardly surprising that this was by no means a classic, but Blues deserved the win away to League Two strugglers Swindon just on chances made, although they left it extremely late. The back four missed the dominance of Christoph Klarer but were tidy enough, apart from the mismatch when the diminutive Ethan Laird was left to mark the gangly Swindon sub with obvious results. Luckily a last minute own goal made sure that it wouldn’t prove too costly
The Blues midfield battled away well but still missed the class of Paik Seung-ho and the power of Tomoki Iwata. Further upfield,Lyndon the little and large partnership of Alfie May and Lyndon Dykes struggled, but thankfully there was a stellar performance from the Japanese wide player Ayumu Yokoyama, who topped his performance with a well-taken goal.
Jay Stansfield was missed and one hopes that he is back soon. On a positive note, the Juke got a run out and to be brutally honest he compares favourably with Dykes in terms of being an effective target man.
Blues had several youngsters on the bench but they unfortunately never got a chance as the manager sought to ensure that we qualified for the quarter-final by hook or crook. We’re now only two matches from appearing at the twin towers and whatever anybody thinks about this cup, a day out at Wembley would be well received!