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A win is a win

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I struggle to recall a six-goal game being so uninspiring. Blues were not at the races last night but to put it frankly, Rotherham are arguably one of the worst sides I have seen at St. Andrews in a fair few years.

Gary Rowett has rightly criticised the defending. From Jonathan Grounds being caught out of position numerous times in what was a treacherous first half performance from him, to the midfield of two of Stephen Gleeson and Maikel Kieftenbeld offering their back four very little protection, an uneasiness is creeping in.

Blues, who had the third best defensive record in the league prior to Friday`s visit to Nottingham Forest, have now conceded five goals in two games – with most of them being completely unavoidable.

A win is a win though and the three points pushes Blues up to fifth in the Championship. Our home form now reads four wins from the last five, a significant improvement when compared to previous seasons.

Last season, this was a game Blues could easily have lost. And after Kieftenbeld sloppily surrendered possession in the build up to Danny Ward`s equaliser, you could have been forgiven for thinking this was going to be ‘one of those nights`.

Blues dug deep and, despite the below par performance and being made to sweat unnecessarily by a team who have now lost seven straight games on the road, they came out with a vital three points. Being a team that can win when not playing particularly well is a good trait to have. Is this the new Blues?

There were some positive elements of the game, I`m not a complete doom-and-gloom-merchant. Jacques Maghoma was the best player on the park which is very timely considering his insipid display at the City Ground. Reece Brown was lively when he came on and the strike partnership of Clayton Donaldson and Lukas Jutkiewicz put to bed the assumption that they are ‘too similar` to play together. Although, it was obvious that playing a duo of the build and stature of The Duke and The Don would lead to an aerial bombardment.

That bombardment worked to a certain extent but it wasn`t pretty on the eye.

There is a lot of work to be done but only two days stand between Blues and another Friday night game at The Pirelli Stadium against Rowett`s former club Burton Albion. So don`t expect Blues to be pulling up any trees in front of the Sky Sports cameras. Another scrappy victory will do nicely before the hard work comes on the training pitch in the nine days before the derby.

Going into that game against a rejuvenated Villa side, Blues simply have to defend better or it will be a depressing Sunday in the blue half of Brum.

For now though, this will do. If Blues can successfully negotiate the Burton fixture which once again has all the markings of a banana skin, we`ll be standing in good stead.

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