Oh well. I didn`t want to watch Manchester United anyway.
For those of you living under a rock, Blues were knocked out of the FA Cup last night after a 4-1 extra time defeat to Huddersfield. Despite their efforts, Steve Cotterill`s men were undone by a better team. We dust ourselves down and go again – as the saying goes.
For what it`s worth, I thought Blues were very sloppy. I lost count of the number of misplaced passes – or unforced errors as they`re called in Tennis. Cheikh Ndoye, who has been decent of late, was absolutely appalling. His ball retention was zero – literally non-existent. But he wasn`t the only one. Cohen Bramall found himself in threatening positions on numerous occasions only to fluff his cross. The same can be said of several players. Blues’ huffed and puffed but their final ball was dreadful.
The first half was a drab affair so it was no surprise to see Jota being introduced at the interval for the hopeless Ndoye.
Jota was lively. Admittedly he was also guilty of misplacing passes but he was positive and always looking to make something happen. When Blues` goal came courtesy of Lukas Jutkiewicz`s knockdown and Che Adams` neat turn and finish, you`d have been forgiven for thinking about a tie with United. The game didn’t promise many goals so perhaps one would be enough…
Of course, it wasn`t. Huddersfield equalised shortly after. Following David Stockdale`s save (one of many) the ball spun goalwards and went in off Marc Roberts.
From that point, the visitors were fairly comfortable, other than one Craig Gardner effort late on which went narrowly wide, and Blues were chasing shadows. Aaron Mooy was the catalyst of most of Huddersfield’s neat build up play. His range of passing was a joy to watch.
Extra time was what neither side wanted.
The fact the game was over five minutes into extra time made the whole exercise a pretty fruitless one for Blues who, if we`re remaining positive, can concentrate on their league excursions.
Luckily, we seem to have come through the gruelling 120 minutes relatively unscathed.
Vital Birmingham Man of the Match – David Stockdale
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