Blues 0-1 Luton Town

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 into a simple stop. Pelly Ruddock's cross was headed wide by Morris at the back post. It took Blues 77 minutes to have their first notable attempt of the second half, Bacuna's free kick resulting in Kevin Long, Jutkiewicz and Roberts being denied by Luton blocks. Two minutes later and Chong's right-wing cross was headed against the bar by Hogan. We huffed and puffed but offered little else, Luton well organised and seeing the game out. Cauley Woodrow almost embarrassed Ruddy at the end too.

Tactics

Blues lined up in a diamond here up against Luton's 3-1-4-2. Gardner played at the base with Chong to his right, Hall to his left and Hannibal at the tip.

Blues had no intention of trying to play football here. Eustace eluded to as much post-match but confidence has clearly been sapped. The old guard are back in and it was about earning the right to be in the game. I don't think Ruddy played a short pass all game. We regularly fed the ball out to Maxime Colin to hoist the ball diagonally to Jutkiewicz. It was about hitting Juke, getting onto seconds and putting the next ball over the top of the Luton defence for Hogan, Chong, Hannibal Mejbri and Hall to chase.

Luton were similarly happy to hit their big man. They would regularly walk the ball into a position to hit Adebayo but with Morris and Clark nearby for seconds. When they did play, they would utilise Gabriel Osho or Marvelous Nakamba, one of whom would tend to be free, and either play on pass through Blues' midfield into the striker to then play out wide, or look for the switch out left to Doughty.

Once they had moved the ball into a wide position, it was all about overload and link ups. At any one time, the wing-back could be supported by the striker, central midfielder or centre back on his day, allowing them to either cross from a touchline position or create a 2 v 1 and pass the ball back for a first time cross from a deeper position.

It meant Blues couldn't really create a press. The Idea if Luton tried to play was to sit off, strikers v wide centre backs, wide centre mids v WB's, Hannibal v Nakamba. We would then want Luton to go forward then back and close in, so Hannibal would step up onto Osho, Gardner onto Nakamba. This would leave Clark free, or one of the Luton strikers who would drop off, centrally but we would be 4 v 3 defensively. After he had some joy early on, we generally found a way to cut out that pass by pressing better as a unit.

Luton were forced into a change of personnel when Reece Burke went off. Pelly Ruddock moved to RCB and Allan Campbell into midfield.

Blues moved to 3-5-2 around 70 minutes in. Roberts and Long flanked Dean in the back three. Colin and Longelo as WB's, Chang flanked by Chong and Bacuna. It gave us width, which created a couple of opportunities from wide positions.

In injury time, we reverted back to the diamond with James replacing Dean.

Players

It's that time of year when knowhow and experience can be pivotal and it was no surprise that our best players were Harlee Dean, Kevin Long and Lukas Jutkiewicz, who knew what the battle required.

Longelo had a tough afternoon, particularly second half. We desperately need more from Hogan in general play to give us a foothold in these games.

For Luton, I love Carlton Morris. Absolute monster of a centre forward. Gabriel Osho was excellent at centre-half and has grown since I last saw him. Jordan Clark was bright further forward.

Anything else

Referee talk. I dislike doing it, but it's probably relevant here.

Firstly, I have no idea how Gary Gardner avoided a yellow. His tackle on Adebayo early doors from behind was on top of his heel, which left Adebayo limping for a period. And he later made another cynical tackle to stop a Luton break.

Then there is Marc Roberts. It's a red. He's caught him high. Swung a leg round for good measure. A big tackle for fans but fortunate the referee was lenient.

Wrapping it up...

I was given a phrase recently: twos and eights. The idea is there a footballers that are either match winners or offer very little. John Eustace has too many of those at his disposal at the moment.

We've been in this situation countless times now. We need players to step up and lead. To win their battles. Do the horrible stuff. Defend the box. Hold the ball up. Avoid being dispossessed on turnovers or by losing the ball in silly areas.

We have a collection of players that are unbelievable when they're at it. But they're also going to kill us at this time of the season when the pressure is on, every team you play against is playing for something, so the intensity of their play is as high, if not higher, than ours. It explains the reason Eustace has reverted to experience and to his side scrapping for points rather than relying on a press to catch teams cold.

It's a time of the season Birmingham City fans know well. You don't play free-flowing football when you're in a scrap. You've got to scrap. Earn the right to play. Teams aren't going to give us a free ride now. We've got to really earn it. And to do that, you need players you can rely on to be at least a 6/10 every week rather than hoping a collection of twos and eights can all produce 8/10 together.

Does Eustace have enough of those players? Probably not. But if ever there was a time for some of these boys to prove it, it's now.