Luke Turner’s thoughts on who will be key tomorrow night…
Blues face promotion chasing Middlesbrough tomorrow night in what is our final home game of the season.
Aitor Karanka`s side will be well up for it considering what is at stake for them and they will be backed by almost 5,000 away fans as well as the Sky Sports cameras being here.
If we are to have any chance of winning the game, then we will need to be on top form. As a result, there won’t be a key player this week. I believe that the whole team will need to be firing at all cylinders rather than just one man shining for us.
Ideally, a repeat of the performance against Hull at home is needed for three points tomorrow night. Our last home win came against The Tigers and it would be great to replicate that against Boro.
It is likely that Middlesbrough will control the game and probably have a few sniffs at goal but we need to do our best to prevent them from having too many.
A mistake, lapse in concentration or failure to communicate will no doubt be punished by the likes of Jordan Rhodes, Stewart Downing and Gaston Ramirez.
We have conceded far too many sloppy goals of late so each and every player will need to be switched on, focused and ready for the challenge ahead.
We need to be tight and compact whilst giving the Boro players little space to manoeuvre in as it will only take that extra yard for them to get a shot on goal or find that inch-perfect pass.
But, once we’ve soaked up the pressure, we need to break quick as soon as their attacks break down. That is what we did best in the early parts of the season and we need to get back to doing that.
We also need to calm the play down at times and get the ball out to our wingers. Players like David Cotterill can be key in these type of games as he has the ability to pick someone out in the middle with a pin-point delivery.
If every player does his job, closes down and keeps disciplined then we could have a decent chance of winning the game.
Our season has really gone downhill of late so tomorrow would be the ideal way to end the last game of the season at St Andrews with a win that will seriously shake up the promotion race.