Blues climb up the table, away from the drop-zone, to a more secure place in the league is now well underway. I’ve gone from certain relegation to some kind of euphoric optimism, to the point I can’t see us losing many games going forward. It’s a complete reversal and just goes to show how different things could have been now the players are able to put the shift in and do the work.
Blues managed to secure all three points and a third clean sheet at the weekend, frustrating Stoke and leaving them with limited options. O’Neill bemoaned Blues performance in ironic style and implicitly criticised his team for their inability to be flexible when trying to defend Roberts throw, I mean all these long throws and his team got caught out by a short one? Gosh, how dare we!
I feel like I’m banging the same drum over and over but it goes to show what could have been without Dong’s meddling. The pressure continued with the Blues Collective putting up more banners, although they were taken down for being offensive, and we’re looking all right for a team destined not to win another match. If Blues were allowed to play to win from the start of the season it certainly looks as though things may well have been completely different.
Rotherham now sit 9 points behind us but with four games in hand they do still have the potential to get out of the relegation zone and possibly leapfrog us. I think their compact fixture list will work in our favour though and so hopefully there won’t be anything to worry about, plus with the table being so close Blues still have the opportunity to finish it looking like a mundane mid-table season.
I’d like to see this mentality carried through to the new season. I know there’s still work to be done this season and the worst thing could be that this blip of decent performances is just a new manager bounce that ends before the season is finished. I think that’s an absolute worst case but you never know. That said I am looking at next season and if Blues continue to allow Bowyer to get the results a football team needs I would be daring to dream of being in the Play Off mix. It will be very frustrating if Blues don’t learn their lesson and repeat the cycle of managers, of Dong trying to control the football, of dubious deals and of near relegation.
lockthelocks 