Blues are beaten at Middlesbrough, watched by Andy Munro.
If it’s possible to lose with honour then this was perhaps the best way to sum up Blues’ performance down by the Riverside. Yet again the match statistics favoured the Blues except in the final points tally.
James Beadle was generally sound as was the defence, although Phil Neumann’s performance slightly dipped as he was given a testing time, which could also be said about Alex Cochrane.
In front of them the midfield was upset by an unfortunate injury to the influential Paik Seung-ho inside the first minute although Tommy Doyle worked hard to try and compensate for his loss. Further upfield, Jay Stansfield as usual worked his socks off although unfortunately no avail and it was Demarai Gray who eventually got the Blues goal.
On that note, despite the goal there is still a feeling that Gray isn’t doing himself full justice in open play but hopefully that will rectify itself. Yet again Patrick Roberts was the pick and a handful for the opposition.
Perhaps our two main under-performers had strangely been most influential in our recent free-scoring victories, namely Tomoki Iwata and Marvin Ducksch. Even the introduction of super-sub and talisman Lyndon Dykes failed to get us the point that we fully deserved.
Despite this narrow loss, Blues still sit comfortably in mid-table and only four points off the play-offs. Opinions amongst bluenoses may vary but many might say that a solid mid-table position reflects where we are. Yet there is still a feeling that there is potential to step up a gear as a team and that is where a certain Chris Davies can prove his worth.
