Andy Munro sees Blues win at Sheffield Wednesday.
From a Blues’ perspective, this was a decent and a (currently) rare away win. However, it took almost an hour for the team to really get going and particularly in the first half, they looked disjointed. Tomoki Iwata looked off his game and the midfield in Tommy Doyle and Paik Seung-ho put in an uninspiring first forty-five minutes. Further forward, Patrick Roberts was again the pick in terms of his energy and Jay Stansfield, whilst not at his most effective, never stopped working even when it was to little effect.
Luckily, after another fairly uninspiring start to the second half Blues at last took the game by the scruff of the neck. With three times as many shots and an 8 to 1 ratio of shots on target their overall superiority can’t be denied. yet interestingly possession was virtually shared which shows what a red herring stats can sometimes be.
It was the Duck who fittingly broke the ‘duck’ thanks to being on the spot to slot home a Stansfield miscue. However, the icing on the cake was when substitute Kyogo Furuhashi slotted home superbly from what looked like an impossible angle. His first league goal which hopefully will trigger a few more. There was also an opportunity for the new signing Jhon Solis to show that he should be both an asset and a different option for Blues going forward.
Much as it hurts to say, the former Villa player Barry Bannan was the opposition’s best player even at 36. However, he couldn’t impact on the result despite going close early on. For Blues, this win hopefully will trigger a real improvement away from St. Andrews and the possibility of a late run for a play-off place. However, their flat performance in the first half against the doomed Owls shows that they can’t be complacent.
