Into the Lion’s Den

Finding myself on the train to Liverpool Lime Street around 1.00 pm last Saturday when I should have been arriving at New Street was a bit disconcerting. The Train manager kindly soothed my worried brow by letting me off at Stafford. 20 minutes later I alighted in Brum and only had a 25-minute walk to the ground.

For 70 minutes I was wondering whether it was all worth it as Blues and Blackpool put on a pretty turgid affair. Suddenly a change of formation and a new team appeared. Blues started playing some decent stuff led by Mcgree, and fashioned a super goal which turned out to be the winner,

I am one of Pederson’s biggest critics, mainly because my seat over looks him for 45 mins each week. Second half, particularly when we went to a back four, he was absolutely brilliant. Josh Bowler, a flying winger from Everton was introduced to ‘get at him’. He did no such thing and when Kristian put over the game winning cross, he was 40 yards behind.

The full debut of Jordon James caused much discussion.  He is a good footballer who I thought had some good and bad moments. Before the formation changed, he may have drifted out of the game. What is indisputable is the boy’s work rate. He never let a gap appear and when the opposition were in possession he was harassing and supporting the rest of his team mates. 95 minutes into the game and he was still going strong. What an engine!

Into the Lion’s Den on Saturday. It’s the first weekend visit since the famous 6-0 drubbing in those awful pink shirts. The injury list is easing slightly but we still putting one or two square pegs in round holes. We have a pretty good record at the Den although recently we have had difficulty finding the net. Matija Sarkic will need to add to his impressive 10 clean sheets if we are to come away with the points. Our goalkeeper has come of age in the last few weeks and his shaky start seems a long way away.

This week has been strange in that we have no mid-week fixture. Personally, I have been doing a little bit of thumb twiddling. Highlight of the week was England Women’s 20-0 win against Latvia. Former Blues Striker Ellen White became the team’s all-time top scorer. While people will question the validity of such fixtures they should remember when the men’s game was in the same stage of development (120 years ago), double figure scores were common place. What would Ireland, USA or Turkey have said after England Men had thrashed them if they were told they were not suitable to play major opponents.

Finally, looking forward to Monday’s FA Cup Draw. Who will our Cup run be against this season?  Joking apart we need to make some money from the Cup this or any year.

#KRO