As I suspect most Blues fans expected, we have made our exit from the Europa League despite winning this encounter. Thursday was the night of my staff’s Christmas do and normally I would have been there but there are a number of passionate football followers among the girls who long-sufferingly look after me and they understood completely that European nights after so long without them are not things to be missed even for the Christmas Party of which there will be another next year; not likely in the case of another European Tour (unless we win the FA Cup of course! 😛 )
Will picked me up from work and as time was getting on we decided to cut across from Guildford, through Bracknell joining the M40 at Wycombe thus avoiding the longest car park in Europe, the M25 altogether. According to the traffic news we made the right decision. We picked up Chris at Baginton and fortified by some food and a pint drove down the A45 to St Andrews. There was still a chance that Blues might qualify of course but it needed a helping hand from Braga who needed to beat Brugge and we needed to do our job and beat Maribor. I think most were delighted to see the inclusion of Redmond on the wing in place of Burke who received a well earned rest on the bench. Spector reverted to full back, a position that I personally prefer him in rather than midfield and Steven Carr was also rested. Murphy, Ibanez and Davies made up the rest of the back four with Redmond, Gomis, Fahey and Beausejour across the middle with Zigic and Rooney up front. Doyle came in for Myhill between the sticks. Doyle makes me nervous even when he goes to pick it up!
Blues were better than their opponents from the off and never looked likely to lose this game. Early on Maribor couldn’t get sufficient possession and it was a case of whether Blues could capitalise sufficiently. They took a deserved lead in the 24th minute. Nathan Redmond tortured the hapless full-back Arghus all evening. Whether going past him on the outside, turning him this way and that and darting inside to feed the ball to a colleague before losing his marker with clever movement or simply nutmegging the defender, it made no difference. The Maribor full back had a torrid time and had it not been for a deliberate, horrible challenge around the hour mark the nearest Arghus was getting to Redmond was the handshake at the end of the game! The young man was simply sensational and fully merited his man of the match award. Effortlessly streaming past the defender yet again, Redmond clipped a lovely ball from the right over Zigic at the near stick where most of the defenders had been drawn to the far post that Rooney couldn’t miss.
Maribor seemed content to put men in front of the ball and try to stifle Blues’ efforts as they patiently moved the ball back and forth across the pitch trying to work openings. Maribor certainly offered none of the attacking threat that Brugge and Braga had done on their visits to St Andrews and the game became somewhat attritional. Maribor never really looked like they could come back into the game or for that matter were particularly interested in doing so. The news from Belgium was not good; Braga were down to 10 men after Elderson’s sending-off and five minutes after the break Bjorn Vleminckx put Brugge into the lead, leaving Blues progression in the competition unlikely. The atmosphere naturally became a little muted but was lifted again with the news that Braga had equalised through Ewerton on 65 minutes.
Redmond continued to terrorise Maribor and stung the goalkeeper’s hands with a drive from 20 yards and it was clear that Arghus was irritated by continually being shown up by the tricky winger. Then came that dreadful tackle. The defender’s attempts to apologise afterwards were dismissed by the 17 year-old who wagged his finger at his opponent. Some officials would have sent the Maribor player off but when you consider that a reckless lunge by Gomis in the first half was also punished with a yellow card I think the referee got it right. No one wants to see players sent off in games like this and apart from these two unsavoury incidents, it wasn’t a dirty game. Arghus left proceedings on 75 minutes, ostensibly for cramp but I suspect it was more for damaged pride and the fact that he’d had enough.
Blues continued to dominate but were reluctant to risk a breakaway equaliser for the visitors by wanton attack. Chances did crop up however and Curtis Davies completely missed a free header from Redmond’s corner and David Murphy stormed through and had a shot blocked. Handanovic pushed away a Rooney header at the foot of the far post to prevent a second goal for Blues. Rooney was soon after replaced by Jordon Mutch with 11 minutes to go for his first taste of action since he broke his ankle, and Blues went to 4-4-1-1. Redmond almost capped a wonderful personal performance with a goal. Receiving the ball on the right corner of the penalty area he smashed a searing volley that was going like an express train, straight as an arrow but the crowd groaned as the shot cannoned back off the post with goalkeeper, Handanovic rooted to the spot. It would have been fully deserved had it gone in but as has been so often the case this season the laws of physics have favoured a reflective angle away from the net rather than in it. I don’t know how many times Blues have hit the woodwork this season but it has to be into double figures. Perhaps someone can tell us?
The game petered out to a 1-0 win; the score line failed to tell the whole story and was not a reflection on Blues dominance in this game. As we all know, despite a couple of late chances Braga’s ten men were unable to gain the win that would have given them the Group win and Blues, a place in the last 32. Nevertheless, I am not disheartened by the turn of events. I like every supporter I have spoken to am proud of the team and the club following this campaign. We have taken two of the biggest names in Europe to the wire and with ten points can consider ourselves very unfortunate not to qualify. The turning point was the encounter in Braga when we missed the golden opportunity to score from the spot and then concede one of the unluckiest goals you are ever likely to see. These events coupled with Maribor’s inability to hold on to a 3-0 lead against Brugges with only 17 minutes to go (how often does something like that ever happen?) told us that it wasn’t going to be and a 1-1 score in Belgium between Braga and Brugges was almost inevitable.
So it is to the league we turn our attentions now. Going forward We have to hope that we can grasp a play-off place as I don’t see us in the top two. January is going to be a vital month for us. It depends more on who we can keep rather than who we can bring in. I would like to see an attack minded midfielder brought in to strengthen there and if Zigic goes (I’m not convinced he will) we will need a replacement striker. The other issue is whether we can secure Wood for the rest of the season from Albion. There have been too many games like the trips to Watford, Reading and Hull and home fixtures against Barnsley, Brighton and Peterborough. These are teams Blues should be beating regardless of where we play them. The number of games we have had to play has undoubtedly taken its toll but there are now no such excuses. By my calculations we have lost 15 points from winning positions this season; this is a statistic that has to improve if we are to have any chance of a shout when it comes to promotion this year. The Maribor encounter was a myopic of our season so far; we made heavy weather of beating the opponent in front of us and it is time for Blues to show their true mettle since we are better than most sides in our league.
The Good: A truly amazing performance by Nathan Redmond.
The Bad: The fact that Blues have ultimately missed out on a slightly longer adventure but for all that I wouldn’t have missed a moment of it.
The Ugly: The two bad tackles, especially Arghus’ challenge on Redmond as it was clearly intended whereas I don’t think Gomis’ was.
Blues: Doyle 6. Spector 7. Murphy 7. Pablo 7. Davies 7. Redmond 9 (Burke 88 N/A). Fahey 7. Gomis 6 (N’Daw 73, 6). Zigic 5. Rooney 7 (Mutch 79 N/A). Beausejour 6. Not used: Myhill, Caldwell, Elliott, Wood.
Maribor: Handanovic 6, Potokar 6, Arghus 4 (Trajkovski 75, 6), Vidovic 7, Rajcevic 6, Filipovic 6, Mertelj 6, Cvijanovic 5 (Iraimi 67, 5),
Mezga, Tavares (Velikonja 71), Volas. Not used: Radan, Milec, Lesjak, Beric.
Referee: S Kever (Switzerland) 7: I thought the man in the middle had a good game. He chose leniency against Gomis early on who was lucky to survive the lunge on one of the Maribor midfielders and then in the second half Arghus could have been red carded but he was consistent and that is what all the players, managers and fans say they want. There was some good football played although the first half was better than the second and the referee always has a part to play in the entertainment value of a game.
Bookings: Gomis (foul, 11), Murphy (foul, 70) – Blues. Vidovic (foul, 51), Arghus (foul, 60).
Attendance: 21, 436 (disappointing I felt given it was probably our last European game for a long time)
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