Andy Munro catches Blues on an off-day.
A sunny day, a vital win under our belts, and playing a team whose line-up would have made Joe Bloggs a ‘name’ player. So optimism abounded in that low key, Bluenose manner because surely that home defeat hoodoo couldn’t happen again…could it?
Blues fielded an unchanged side but, without sounding hypocritical given my views on Tinkerman Clark, why did we start with Ziggy and Shinnie up front when our most prolific scorer (loanee Macheda) was on the bench? Mind you, after twenty minutes tinkering commenced with Caddis moved into centre mid and Spector filling the right back slot. This, however, was less of a concern than Blues’ general inability to defend. It didn’t help that Callum Reilly continually gave the ball away whilst the defence would have, at times, made a statue look upwardly mobile.
The first goal was typical with Spector unable to deal with a full frontal attack by a winger and from the resulting cross, Tyler Blackett casually allowing the centre to drift past him to the smallest man on the pitch to joyfully smash the ball home. Additional Memo to Tyler Blackett; if you are slower than a three legged tortoise, it might be sensible to pick up the winger tight instead of allowing him a ten yard exclusion zone so he can ghost past you.
It got worse with Randolph having a rush of blood and arguably culpable for Bournemouth’s fourth. However , with the onset of Macheda and Novak, things got markedly better for a period until Clark decided to bring on Lovenkrands in a schoolboy bid to throw on as many forward players as possible irrespective of the team balance. The result was a lack of cohesion and a cramping of style for the forward players. The ref certainly wasn’t a homer but despite some diabolical decisions, couldn’t be blamed for our demise.
That ‘honour’ must lie in the hands of the manager himself. He was on the Tom Ross Show bemoaning Blues’ work off the ball but Lee, I have a message for you…..
The squad is certainly as good as that of other mid-table teams and it’s just that we lack energy, commitment, an ability to press teams, an inability to attack in numbers and much more. Now, I wonder who could possibly be to blame?
