Concentrating on the league

Andy Munro isn’t too worried about Blues going out of the Carabao Cup to Fulham.

It’s time to fall back on that old adage as Blues bowed out of the Carabao Cup against Fulham. In fairness, Blues made ten changes which not only featured a clutch of younger players but also couldn’t have helped cohesion. This was against a Fulham side who fielded a team most of whom had Premier League experience.

Despite this gap in experience Blues acquitted themselves well in a first half where they had as many shots as the opposition but Fulham bossed possession. The visitors’ goal was well taken but Blues dug in during the second half until Fulham’s late decider.

It was good to see Neil Etheridge back; he had a decent game and looked assured. In front of him Dion Sanderson was calm and classy supported by George Friend while both Mitch Roberts and Marcel Oakley did their prospects no harm, although the latter was caught ball-watching a couple of times in the second period.

In the middle the triumvirate of McGree, Castillo and Sunjic battled hard although the latter was the culprit for Fulham’s opening goal when he lost possession. Further forward, Jonathan Leko laboured as usual but never stopped trying and Chuks Aneke made a nuisance of himself and battled hard to keep the ball. Perhaps the best came from Jordan Graham, who sent over several excellent crosses and generally displayed some decent trickery.

Overall, it was a decent performance in the circumstances and it has only to be expected that Fulham have far greater depth in their squad given that they will still be living off their Premier League riches.