Luton Town 3 Blues 2 .. Report
Another desperate defensive display meant that despite Blues leading 1-0 through DJ Campbell, and despite them then coming back from 2-1 to make it 2-2 in the second half, they still conspired to throw away the points to a Luton side who were well organised, yes, but were no more than distinctly average.
The last game was so long ago now - I've had the sheer pleasure of watching the delightful football served up by the England national team twice in the meantime - so I cannot remember for the life of me the team that started against Leicester. I'd hazard a guess that there was three changes - Bruno N'Gotty for Olivier Tebily, Neil Danns for David Dunn and Cameron Jerome for Nicklas Bendtner, but I may be wrong, so, to make things easier, Blues lined up with Maik Taylor in goal and a back four of Kelly, Jaidi, N'Gotty and Sadler. In midfield Danns was on the right, McSheffrey on the left and Nafti and Muamba in the middle, with Campbell and Jerome up front.
Blues actually started really, really impressively at Kenilworth Road - oft-described as 'The San Siro of Bedfordshire'. I personally think that the Patio Windows Stand at Luton makes it a superior stadium to the home of the Milan giants AC Milan and Internazionale, but there we go. Blues absolutely dominated proceedings early on, and deservedly went ahead after about a quarter of an hour through Campbell. McSheffrey chipped the ball forward and Campbell showed good pace and strength, plus a cool finish (he didn't have time to think again - give him time to think and he finishes about as coolly as Gary Nev... oh...) to knock the ball past Marlon Beresford and make it 1-0 to Blues.
Given Blues' excellent start to the game, you'd have hoped that going 1-0 up meant that the side grew in stature and went on to give Luton - who, in contrast, had started like a 1978 Nissan Sunny - a right hiding. That wasn't the case though. It seemed that going 1-0 up was the worst thing that could happen. Blues eased off, Luton got back into it - you can guess the rest.
After about half an hour Luton were awarded a penalty when Stephen Kelly was adjudged to have fouled Lewis Emanuel in the area. It looked to be a harsh decision, as Blues had had two earlier penatly appeals waved away - one for a foul on Jerome and one on McSheffrey. Both looked as good a shout as the Luton one. Still, these things happen and Rowan Vine, of former 'next big thing' at Portsmouth fame, stepped up and hit a weak penalty that was nowhere near the corner that Taylor guessed right but just jumped over it. Smashing.
Moments later Luton were 2-1 up courtesy of Blues defending a corner about as badly as it is possible to defend a corner. If there was a competition to see which team could defend a corner in the most absolutely wrong way, then Blues would have won with this entry. Vine was on hand to knock in his second goal in about a minute and his popularity amongst the home fans seems to be increasing to the point that his name will soon be mentioned in the same breath as other Luton Town greats such as Brian Stein, Steve Foster, Ricky Hill and Matthew Taylor. Praise indeed.
Blues got going a little bit in response to this, but weren't able to hit back before the break. Jaidi went close with a header from a set piece, but Blues just couldn't quite click into the sort of gear they showed in the first 15-20 minutes, and weren't helped by McSheffrey appearing to have an off-day.
The start of the second half was much like the end of the first half, with Blues having some pressure, but not really creating a great deal too dangerous. Jaidi went close again, but Luton always looked fairly lively on the counter-attack. Neil Kilkenny was introduced to replace Muamba, but he was unable to create much either.
Blues did nick an equaliser midway through the second half though, and it was just when it was beginning to look like it wouldn't happen. The ball found it's way to Danns on the right-hand corner of the penalty area, and the midfielder hit a superb strike when the angle was against him which went in off the post. It was a stunning first goal for the club, and went some way to appeasing those Blues fans (me) who felt that his new hairstyle looked ridiculous.
The game was end-to-end now, but if the truth be told it was Luton who looked more dangerous. Blues were hampered by Mikael Forssell coming on for Cameron Jerome. Now, yet again Jerome didn't contribute a great deal, but he was still about 462 times more effective than Forssell. To say that Forssell looks a shadow of his former self is doing his former self's shadow a disservice - he currently looks like a shadow of Trevor Aylott's former self's shadow. It's actually painful to watch, given that he was such a fantastic player for the club, but in my mind Blues effectively only have three strikers to pick from at present, because I don't think Forssell looks anything like someone who is going to come good. Whilst Bendtner's out, there'd be an argument for having Sone Aluko or Ollie Allen on the bench ahead of Forssell in my mind. Anyway, like I say, it's painful to write such things about him too, but that's how it looks.
So, Luton got a winner with about 10 minutes to go, as everyone probably guessed they would. For some reason in the second half Matt Sadler appeared to be about as exposed as Joey Barton's posterior at Goodison Park. I'm not sure how it happened, but Sadler appeared to be doing a hell of a lot of covering for other people in the second half, and in fairness, he did much of it ok. However, he was exposed again for Luton's winner, and couldn't do anything this time as they had people queuing up at the far post and were even able to knock the ball about in Blues' area to create the space for former Rushden & Diamonds legend (do they have such things? I've just made up that he was a legend. If he played for them, and is now scoring goals in The Championship, surely he must have been a legend there though?) David Bell to make it 3-2.
Blues obviously chased another equaliser and Kelly missed a sitter following Beresford competing with Paul Robinson for the 'Bizarrest Piece Of Goalkeeping Of The Week' award. Kelly had the opportunity to knock the ball into a pretty much unguarded net, but had a rush of blood to the head and volleyed over the bar, and that was that. The 1,500 or so Blues fans who had clambered through 91, Oak Road's back garden to get into the away end at Kenilworth Road voiced disapproval once again - some aimed at Bruce, some at the referee, some at Mike Newell, some at the players, some at the linesmen, well, you get the picture.
I could make quips about Bruce picking two defensive midfielders in a game, but to be honest, that joke isn't funny anymore. Blues ARE scoring goals. Four goals in their past two away games SHOULD be enough to earn you more than zero points. There is something horribly wrong though. You simply cannot ship this many goals and expect to get away with it.
How have Jaidi and N'Gotty, the two centre halves on whom Bolton built their 'tough to beat' image, turned into players who are in a team that ships goals constantly? How can you pick two very good defensive midfielders for this level, in Nafti and Muamba, and still ship this many goals? How can you start a game so, so emphatically, to the point that you almost sensed "blimey, all this 'season starts here' talk might be right", but then score a goal and just let everything go to pot? There's loads of other questions that could be asked, but I suspect that the answers will all come back the same; the fact that it's down to the management of the football club.
We were playing Luton Town, for God's sake. Now I know we have no divine right to beat anyone, but it was Luton bloody Town. They're punching above their weight at present, and Blues should be able to go to fortress Kenilworth Road and get something out of the game. They were shown up again though. Even at the end Luton comfortably held on to the three points because they carried on attacking. Blues never do that if they're in any lead at any point of any game - why not? Refer to the above answer, I suspect. Luton though kept pressing, their substitute Dean Morgan was superb and kept driving at Blues, and as I say, they held on to their three points pretty well.
I've said several times in other reports this season that I think that Blues will comfortably sit around the upper part of the table this season, and in some ways I still feel that's the case (although you could argue that we've already been found out at this level), but I've also said that it will be in spite of Steve Bruce, not because of him. To be honest, I'd stick my neck out and say that if I was Blues manager for the rest of this season, then I reckon they'd finish in the top ten, simply because of the players at the club.
The question has to be, have we reached a point now where nothing is going to improve under Bruce? You always have to strive to improve, because if you don't, you go backwards. In the past 6 weeks Blues have started going backwards. Perhaps it is time for a change, but you do then have to address the question of who you'd bring in.
On the way back from Luton, however, both Bruce and Blackburn manager Mark Hughes were interviewed on Radio Five Live - both were teammates at Manchester United and are probably at similar stages of their managerial career. Whilst Bruce criticised the referee and then just vaguely talked about how this is a difficult division, Hughes commented on his team's game plan at Anfield, commented on how Liverpool played against them and gave a bit of technical insight. At the time I wondered whether I'd ever heard Steve Bruce say "well, what we did today was try and play a high defensive line to combat such and such..." or "before the game we stressed the importance to the players that in order to get a result, we'd have to be a little better in such and such an area of the pitch". There's nothing remotely technical about anything he ever says, which, as a manager, I'd suggest is a bit of a worry. It seems that picking the best 11 players available - or his favoured 11 at any one time - is about all he does, and then there's actually no footballing methods put into practice.
The fact is that there are managers out there who do better than that, and clearly work on different systems, getting the best out of players, etc, etc (Mike Newell is just one example - I'm not advocating his appointment as next Blues manager, but seeing as we played Luton, there's one), rather than just assembling the best squad in the division and hoping that'll be enough. As I said above, that probably is enough to get you a top ten finish under me, or even maybe a top six finish under Bruce (although no wins in four suggests that could be a struggle), but that can't be considered to be enough anymore. There needs to be indications that some form of method, purpose and style is being put into practice if the club is really looking to progress, and unfortunately that's not happening.
A good team full of good players will always be able to score goals and play some decent football regardless of who the manager is, because they're good players - that's what they've all been doing for 10-20 years. That good team will struggle though if nothing else is put into practice, and there's no guidance or instructions as to how they should play as a team. Unfortunately with this current run, you have to say that Blues are now struggling - 2 points out of the last 12 available is struggling form - and as such, Bruce's position really has to be questioned now.
As with Mikael Forssell above, it's perhaps painful to say it or accept it. The fact is though that Blues fans still don't have a bad word to say about Steve Bruce the man, and if he went now, I'm sure that high esteem would continue. There's a thin line between that and clinging on too long to the point that people do turn against you - not just as a manager, but personally too - and Steve Bruce should think long and hard about whether he wants to cross that line with the fans of a football club where he is regarded as one of the great players and, if the truth be told, one of the greatest managers too. I don't want him to cross that line, I'm sure you don't want him to cross that line, and I'd hope that he doesn't want to cross that line either.