Blues’ destiny in their own hands after gritty win

Blues 2 Huddersfield 0

You can always bank on Blues to do things the hard way. Miss a penalty. Check. Have a man sent off. Check. But for all the circumstances that tried to conspire against Blues, application, organisation and industry prevailed.

Harry Redknapp’s game plan was clear – sit tight, soak up the pressure, use the wide players as the attacking outlet. And it worked. It wasn’t pretty and at times it was downright ugly. But it was exactly what Blues needed.

In the space of 15 minutes, Lukas Jutkiewicz missed a penalty and Che Adams was dismissed with a straight red card. It was set to be an all too familiar tale.

Then four minutes before the break, a Craig Gardner cross was headed across goal by Michael Morrison, Jonathan Grounds was on hand to head Blues into the lead. Bedlam inside St. Andrews.

It was just the tonic going into the interval.

The second half took a similar route. Redknapp’s charges, knowing they didn’t have to chase the game, stayed united and resilient. Although a lot of pressure was soaked up, Tomasz Kuszczak didn’t really have much to do.

With 14 minutes to go, the referee awarded a second penalty to Blues. Jacques Maghoma was clearly unhappy that he wasn’t taking it. But Gardner made no mistake in putting his side two goals to the good.

Redknapp seems to have got a reaction out of the players. In so little time, he has tightened the defensive knots and Blues once again look a cohesive unit.

Although nobody wanted to take the relegation scrap down the last weekend, Blues have a two point cushion over two teams – Nottingham Forest and Blackburn Rovers. It leaves Blues’ destiny in their own hands.

Let’s get the job done in Bristol.