Blues 3 Plymouth Argyle 0 .. report

Last updated : 02 December 2006 By Richard Barker

First half goals from Nicklas Bendtner, Matthew Upson and Gary McSheffrey were enough for Blues who went top of the league following this result and Preston and Cardiff's failures.

Steve Bruce made three changes to the side that lost 4-3 at Southampton; Upson returned at the expense of Martin Taylor, Mehdi Nafti - who had impressed at St Mary's - came in for Fabrice Muamba who had looked jaded in his last couple of games, and Cameron Jerome returned taking Neil Danns' starting spot, meaning McSheffrey went back to the left-hand side and Jerome partnered Bendtner up front.

Blues started slowly and Plymouth were fairly quick out of the traps - supported by an impressive travelling contingent who filled a decent sized away area unlike Wolves in Blues' last home game. The man with a hammer for a right foot, Paul Wotton, forced Maik Taylor into a save before Blues eased themselves into the game.

At Southampton Blues were given a bit of a lesson in capitalising on taking chances when they come your way, and they were far more clinical today. After about 20 minutes they were 1-0 up, courtesy of a goal made and finished by Arsenal loanees. Seb Larsson lifted a fine ball over the Plymouth defence and Bendtner timed his run well. If Bendtner was ever on 'Mastermind' his specialist subject would clearly be 'Rounding Goalkeepers' and he did it with aplomb again here, coolly carrying the ball past Luke McCormick and slotting the ball home.

Blues were on top now and doubled their lead on half an hour through Upson in his first start since, well, ages ago - March or something. McSheffrey picked out Stephen Clemence well with a corner and Clemence's powerful header was cleared off the line but only into the goalmouth where Upson was on hand to simply prod the ball over the line from about a foot out to make it 2-0.

It was 3-0 about 5 minutes before half time following more good work from the Arsenal duo. Bendtner won possession and flicked the ball down the flank for Larsson - getting clattered in the process. Larsson got into a good position and picked out McSheffrey with a ball across the face of the goal and the former Coventry man found the back of the net courtesy of a deflection.

Even then Blues had two more opportunities before the break when Nafti failed to pick out a man when well placed and then with Bendtner firing wide. Although they'd started alright and as at Home Park last month, they showed plenty of endeavour, Plymouth were so, so far out of their depth that you wouldn't have been surprised if Ian Holloway had provided each of his players with a rubber ring and armbands at half-time. For the second consecutive game Blues went into the break with the scoreline 3-0 - this time it was the right way around.

The second half carried on in much the same vain, to be honest. Recently it could have been said of Blues games that they only scored one but could have had five or six. Well, today they only scored three when they could have had sixteen or seventeen. In the second half Radhi Jaidi had a header cleared off the line, Upson had a header cleared off the line, Bendtner was denied by McCormick, McSheffrey was denied by McCormick, substitute DJ Campbell went close and Larsson fired wide when caught in two minds between shooting and squaring the ball to Jerome. Basically, Blues were dominant.

Plymouth got themselves going a bit late on when Blues had taken Bendtner and Clemence off for a rest and taken their foot off the gas a little and Maik Taylor made one or two more saves, but there was no danger of any drama such as that at St Mary's the other night and the game ended 3-0.

A special mention must go to Nicklas Bendtner who was quite stunning today. He's been pretty damn impressive for Blues anyway, but this was his most complete performance to date, and what a player he is going to be. That's unfair on him now, to be fair - what a player he already is. He was absolutely magnificent today and stood out like a really, really nice car in a car park with lots of half-decent cars (most players on the pitch) and some old bangers that have had their day (Barry Hayles).

I said in my report after the Southampton game that it was just one of those stupid, crazy games and Blues just needed to forget about it, get it out of their system and move on, and they did that. Today's performance was one for the football purists, whereas Wednesday night was a game for the football mentalists. Blues bounced back well, played some really good stuff, rattled in a few goals, kept a clean sheet - all of which sets them up very nicely for next week's Battle of The Top Two against Preston. A win in that and there might even be a bit of a gap opening up...