Luke Turner’s thoughts on last nights win…
Blues collected a vital three points last night as they defeated Bolton Wanderers 1-0 at St Andrews.
The win moves Gary Rowett`s side to within three points of the play off places with a game in hand on those above.
Before the game I had labelled it as a must win game. I didn’t care how we got the win as long as we got it.
It was a pretty dull affair throughout with Blues being fairly comfortable without Bolton causing us too much trouble.
Perhaps the only bit of quality in the whole game arrived when Clayton Donaldson scored what proved to be the winning goal in the 29th minute.
A lovely bit of skill from Diego Fabbrini resulted in him playing the ball with the outside of his foot to Donaldson who, in turn, flicked the ball in with the outside of his boot.
Donaldson has now scored in two successive home games which will be a major confidence boost to him and hopefully it will trigger more goals from the frontman.
I was a bit surprised when the team sheet came out and Fabbrini`s name was on it. I am a huge fan of Jon Toral but I think Rowett felt like it was time the Italian made his first start since returning.
As usual, Diego covered ground and showed some nice bits of skill but he was man marked throughout and found it difficult to find space.
Jacques Maghoma was my man of the match due to his tireless work in winning the ball back, helping out Grounds and being a constant threat going forward.
Sometimes he might’ve held onto the ball for so long but his performance can’t really be faulted.
It was also a bonus to get David Cotterill some more minutes as he returns from injury. He looked sharp and I would personally start him on the weekend.
The fact that Rowett had the ability to bring both Toral and Cotterill on speaks volumes of how far we have come as a side under his guidance.
As well as grinding out the three points, what stands out for me is another clean sheet. Last night saw us clock up our fifth clean sheet in the last six games which is hugely impressive.
It shows that we are hard to beat and the partnership of Morrison and Robinson just keeps getting stronger.
Maybe the only slight worry is that we have only scored two goals in our last four. However, there is no doubt that we have players capable of scoring, it’s just a case of getting into that rhythm again.
Also, just a little word on Ryan Shotton. He was defensively sound but at times his distribution was very poor and, like I said last week, he lacks urgency.
I think we miss the attacking threat of Caddis and the energy the Scot brings to the team.
But, overall, we got the job done and avoided being on the receiving end of Bolton first away win all season.
The players should be filled with confidence going into the trip to QPR on Saturday but might have to play better than they did last night if they are to come away with another three points.