Andy Munro watches Blues draw with Southampton.
This game was a real mixed bag that started in promising style for the Blues. The omens were good early on as they generally controlled possession and in doing so hit the woodwork twice.
At the back, amazingly they hardly missed the suspended Christoph Klarer with Phil Neumann at last living up to his potential and Jack Robinson masterful.
Alex Cochrane was steady and competent and played things simply and even Eiran Cashin showed little weakness. Perhaps the only downside was some awful long kicking from James Beadle even though he also made a couple of excellent saves
The Saints rarely threatened and their excellent away following were quiet, especially when after a second half goalmouth melee following a corner, Neuman bundled the ball home. It looked at that stage that there was only going to be one winner until Chris Davies inexplicably made several ill-advised substitutions.
Kyogo Furuhashi, who whilst missing another gilt-edged chance in the first half, had been magnificent in never allowing the Saints defence to play out comfortably was replaced by an ineffective Marvin Ducksch, who seemed off the pace and to use a pun, played more like a lame duck. In fact, he resembled a poor man’s Lyndon Dykes.
Lewis Koumas also came on for Jay Stansfield, again this did Blues momentum no favours and they would have been better off bringing on one of their home-grown youngsters to add energy.
Saints made a number of subs including ex -Villa man Cameron Archer and predictably he hit the equaliser to his delight and to the chagrin of the home fans. In fact from then on Saints controlled proceedings and ended up deserving their share of the points. All down to some poo substitutions!
