Another week has gone by and you would have thought by now I could have come up with a good headline from the Derby game and after toying with – “Rowan, you finally scored…about bloody Vine”, and “I’ve heard we a definite for promotion…how do I know? I heard it through the Great Vine!” but after deciding both were rubbish a simple “GET IN!” shall suffice.
Not the greatest performance but certainly not the worst, anything but a defeat or a draw was what was needed, and by God that’s what we got. A good performance by Mr Vine and a fine goal too, let the scoring commence. But I do have to say that my man of the match was Steven Clemence by a mile, but it comes as no surprise as he solidly gives a 7 out of 10 performance at a minimum every game. He battled well, he won his tackles, he didn’t lose possession and he is now finally the link between the back four and the front line. But to me what makes him even more essential is his passion, he screams, he shouts, he motivates. He is constantly talking on the pitch, whether that be praise, advice or a good rollicking – he is letting his opinion be known. So Mr. Bruce… don’t drop him as captain…a trip down to Carrow Road and this is exactly what he does.
Damien Johnson returns, not only does he come into a wining team and displace the most obvious leader we have but he also dislodges one of our recent top performers, Seb Larsson, over to the other wing where he is forced to play on his weaker foot. Why not put Johnson there? He’s crap with both feet! Harsh? Maybe a little bit. I wasn’t happy that straight after the Final whistle against Derby he sprinted off down the tunnel. |
|
 |
Thing is, this annoyance I’m suffering is not really at Damien Johnson but at Steve Bruce. I have always maintained that a manager should not pick his best eleven players but his best players for each position per it’s requirements. Larsson is our best choice to play wide right. None of this play him at home and Johnson away blah blah blah crap. Larson is our best wide right player.
Wide left is obviously the spot for Gary McSheffery, but with him suspended, (I can’t believe I’m saying this – Dan, the lad who sits behind me will be having kittens), Julian Gray should have started. I am not Julian Gray’s biggest fan but he is a natural wide left player, the last game he was majorly involved in was at home to Blackburn last season, where, when played to his strengths, he can cause problems.
Forget about him tracking back and making tackles – aint gonna happen! But given the ball in the final third he does have the ability to beat a man and produce a cross.
The return of Jaidi is something I’m not going to even discuss, he’s awful, and I would say a disaster waiting to happen but he’s already been sent off twice and he is also affecting my health and making my hair go grey(er). When the football chiefs were inspecting the bungs the Jaidi transfer is the one they should have inspected, I’d want a huge pay-out for signing him!
One thing that I am going to bring up which has deeply saddened me is the exclusion of DJ Campbell. Infact, saddened is not a strong enough word – it disgusts me. The way he has been treated is a disgrace. |
|
|
As I have mentioned in my previous articles he has acted with professionalism, conducted himself well on the pitch and in the eyes off the press and has recorded 10 goals in 19 starts. He has proved to be a difficult player to contain, he’s quick, he’s sharp, he is exactly what our team needs. But instead we have gone for a guy who had good season a few years ago and hasn’t played for a number of months and is probably no-where near match fit. Has Bruce forgotten that in the two games when we played our most threatening football (Newcastle (a), Reading (h),) that our front line was Jerome and Campbell.
Enough of my moaning and on with the next game, West Brom away – ouch, we could have done with an easier game but what the hell. West Brom are to be without Curtis Davis and Albrechstein. Darren Carter will most likely play again against us, a player we were crazy to let go, box-to-box, scores goals and loved the club. This game is a make or break game, again, for this point in the season. A draw would be a fantastic result, we just cannot afford to let them gain ground on us, and a win would be out of this world. With no McSheffery it is going to be tougher than it would normally have been as we have no outlet, no one who can run smoothly and at pace with the ball.
We will struggle because West Brom our one of the dozen teams in this league that try to play football and we are not able to match them in this department, but being a blues fan I have this wonderful mentality that makes me think that on our day we can beat anyone in the world, so put your money on a 3-1 win to Birmingham with Kelly to grab the final goal of the game. Now is our time, let’s take the roof off the place, sing it loud and sing it proud…. KEEP RIGHT ON. |
|
