Andy Munro sees Blues draw at home with Derby County.
Given Derby’s excellent away record, this was never going to be a walk in the park but there was still an air of disappointment around St Andrews as Blues failed to take advantage of having a numerical advantage for much of the game.
In fairness to Derby, whilst Blues had more of the play, the Rams always looked dangerous on the break with pacy forwards Rhian Brewster and Patrick Agyemang, who combined for the opening goal.
Blues went close on a number of occasions, including a shot from the elusive Demarai Gray who unfortunately soon afterwards went off injured and he will be a player that will be sorely missed by a misfiring Blues team. However, the sending-off of a Derby player eventually proved too much for the Rams as Blues drew level with a goal (albeit a really scruffy one) from Paul Robinson.
Despite Blues hitting the woodwork a couple of times, they failed to clinch three points and to make matters worse Christoph Klarer was deservedly sent off for a rash high challenge when all the situation warranted was a header into touch. He will undoubtedly be missed during the next run of three exceedingly difficult fixtures.
Hopefully Robinson’s confidence will be bolstered by his goal and general all-round performance and one hopes that Phil Neumann will step up to the plate with the captain missing.
Further forward, Patrick Roberts was the pick (again) with excellent support again provided by Tomoki Iwata. Unfortunately Jay Stansfield never looked like breaking his goal drought whilst perhaps even more worryingly, Marvin Ducksch had another anonymous game and needs to do more than occasionally link up play.
Blues now desperately need a win but this won’t be easy with so many difficult fixtures coming up. This is where the manager has to earn his corn, otherwise one wonders about his future. His ‘encouraging’ comments about the team’s performance might seem to many Blues fans to be papering over the cracks that appear to be showing in terms of being serious play-off contenders.
