Andy Munro watches Blues beat Preston as the season starts to wind down.
In many ways this was a typical end of season game. Blues went two-nil up thanks to the mercurial Ibrahim Osman before he worryingly limped off. Preston then pegged the Blues back and in the second period had more possession but in the end this was luckily to no avail.
Blues were fairly solid at the back and they had to be, but both central defenders remained strong so maybe the much vaunted Neumann/Klarer partnership may be worth pursuing after all. A word on a decent performance by both full-backs, who were solid defensively as well as supporting the wingers. A worry, however, was another inconsistent performance from James Beadle, who too often appeared to flap at balls in the air when under pressure.
Unfortunately, we never really got hold of midfield, which led to Preston having more possession and it was a relief to see Jhon Solis brought on to break things up.
It was great to see Jay Stansfield notch a long-awaited goal to end his goal drought whilst Carlos Vincente made some good runs and crosses although yet again August Priske failed to convert anything. If one were to be hyper-critical, a player of his height should be winning more balls cleanly in the air.
Overall, it was a reasonable performance but certainly one not worth putting out the blue flags for.
