Ryan's Blues Musings

Starting XI Three changes. Harlee Dean, Gary Gardner and Lukas Jutkiewicz return. Auston Trusty is injured. Juninho Bacuna and Alfie Chang drop to the bench. Jordan Graham and Marc Roberts return to the squad. Game A scrap. Luton started the brighter but it was Blues who had the first chance, Gardner cutting back for Tahith Chong whose effort was blocked. Elijah Adebayo headed wide a Cody Drameh cross then Jordan Clark tamely found the arms of John Ruddy. With a quarter of the match gone, Scott Hogan headed wide a Jutkiewicz cross. Adebayo headed over from Alfie Doughty's left-wing delivery and their best chance of the half fell to Jordan Clark, who miskicked Drameh's low cross. Luton were out the blocks quicker second half and got their rewards almost immediately. Blues failed to clear their lines and invited pressure. A left-wing cross found Carlton Morris 1 v 1 against Longelo at the back stick and the burly striker headed down and past Ruddy. A Clark snapshot forced Ruddy i...

Starting XI Four changes. Alfie Chang, Tahith Chong, George Hall and Kevin Long back in. Troy Deeney and Dion Sanderson are injured. Harlee Dean and Lukas Jutkiewicz are rested. Jordan Graham and George Friend return to the squad. Game The first half was all Norwich. Kenny McLean found Idah in behind, Blues didn't clear lines and Kieran Dowell beat two being denied. An effort was blocked, a corner wasn't dealt with leading to Grant Hanley being denied and McLean firing wide. A forward pass into Idah was laid off to Marcelino Nunez who struck wide. And after Blues headed over a free-kick, Gabriel Sara found Nunez. Wide, again. As half hour approached, Blues' young midfield appeared to have got a grip on things only to see us go one-behind. A corner was cleared and the ball landed for Nunez who struck a volley from 30 yards so sweet it left Ruddy rooted. The goal knocked the stuffing out of us. Eight sloppy minutes later, Nunez had his second. Blues put no pressure on the b...

  Starting XI One change. Harlee Dean replaces Kevin Long at centre back. Manny Longelo returns to the squad. Game A drab affair in which very little happened. The first half provided little in the way of opportunity. An early set-piece for the visitors was headed wide. We responded with our own, Bacuna's hook into the box headed wide by Auston Trusty. Sory Kaba's overhead went wide. Perry Ng saw an effort from a corner blocked. The only chance of note between minutes 21 and 45 was a Ryan Wintle shot that deflected slowly towards John Ruddy. An excellent Juninho Bacuna cross was dealt with brilliantly by Ng to deny Lukas Jutkiewicz. Kaba did well to fashion overhead from a low cross and then fired over from a free-kick. After seven subs in one go from the two sides, substitutes Connor Wickham, whose effort on the turn found Ruddy's gloves, and Gary Gardner, deflected wide, had chances. It was heading to a stalemate until a Cardiff player was allowed to drive inside and ha...

  Starting XI Three changes. Juninho Bacuna, Hannibal Mejbri and Lukas Jutkiewicz are back. Reda Khadra, injured, Gary Gardner and George Friend, both benched, are out. Troy Deeney, George Hall and Harlee Dean return to the squad. Emmanuel Longelo, Jordan Graham and Alfie Chang drop out.  Game The tempo was set early on by Blues and Hannibal's quality from set-pieces almost paid off after three minutes when Auston Trusty headed over his corner at the back post. He was on the mark after ten minutes, catching out David Button, preparing for the cross, with a near post free kick to give Blues the lead. This was a breathless half of football from Blues and the midfield were key. Tahith Chong fired a loose ball over the bar, Bacuna volleyed over, Chong forced Button into a stop, Hannibal fired wide from 25 yards then nearly caught out Button with a whipped free-kick that was held at the second attempt. The best West Brom could muster in response was Daryl Dike closing down backpass...

Starting XI Moors (3-5-2): Boot; Clarke Howe Coker; Barnett Maycock Davis (Cybulski) T.Whelan Donawa; Beck (Kelly) Dallas (Sbarra). Unused: Roberts C.Whelan  Notts (3-4-1-2) Slocombe; Rawlinson Baldwin Cameron; Nemane Palmer Bajrami (Bostock) Chicksen; Rodrigues (Austin); Langstaff Scott (Jones) Game So, I missed the first ten minutes or so and watched the rest. And after some back and forth in the early parts of the game, it was Moors that took the lead, Maycock cutting out a Cameron pass, driving forward, finding Dallas, who returned the favour, and showing some composure in the box.  Notts almost get in straight away, Nemane getting in behind Bajrami whose effort was saved. At the other end, Maycock got the better of Palmer before finding Dallas who fluffed his lines.  Notts equalised from the penalty spot. Bajrami got onto a loose ball, found Scott and as he went to pull the trigger, Clarke went through the back of him. Definite penalty. Rodrigues was calm.  Whel...

Swansea City 3-4 Birmingham City Starting XI Two changes from the last league game. Gary Gardner and George Friend start league games for the first time since August. Troy Deeney is injured. Hannibal Mejbri is on the bench. Emmanuel Longelo is in the squad. Jordan Graham is out. Game A chaotic game between two sides who are in a chaotic state. Swansea were completely dominant from the get go. Within three minutes, Ntcham had found the run of Piroe. Ruddy made a big stop. On six minutes, Grimes found the run of Cullen. Ruddy made a big stop. Then out of nowhere, a penalty. Khadra made the most of a loose Cabongo header. He gets a touch and goes over Fisher. It's not a penalty. I'd be fuming if that was given against Ruddy. He's knocked the ball out of play and just gone for the contact. But it was given and Scott Hogan snuck the ball under the arm of Fisher. Swansea went back to dominating. Piroe made the most of Trusty's poor touch but his shot was deflected wide. Then ...