Birmingham City v Doncaster Rovers Brief Post Match Thoughts

Well the first thought is, did we need THAT!

Is Jean injured? I’m a little surprised that’s two games he’s missed – but I was pleased to see Redmond on the bench.

Anyway back to the game. Davies returned after his suspension and N’Daw made his first league start. It sounded like we were the better side for much of the 1st half with a few chances and a strong penalty shout turned down.

Having said that, Doncaster created the best chance and Fortune probably would have scored if it hadn’t been for Spector’s tackle. (He is really growing in confidence and looking a much better player). We went into the break level, although probably should have been ahead.

Having said that, the warning signs were there, and it was Fortune who opened the scoring with a low shot just a few minutes into the second half. The goal re-sparked Blues into life, and just over 10 minutes later, King got the equaliser after a defensive mix up.

Blues then went for the jugular! Hughton bought Redmond on for Elliott and immediately he was involved. The crowd volume increased with the expectancy. From here on in, only one team was going to win. Wood was replaced by Zigic and Fahey came on for N’Daw, (the latter seemed to have taken a knock). It was all Blues, but it looked like we may have to settle for a point – it certainly looked like Doncaster had, however that never give up attitude that has seen us grab some excellent victories this season, was evident again. With just a few minutes to go, King grabbed his second and Blues winner bringing our recent poor run to an end. On the second half performance, it was nothing more than Blue deserved.

Just some final thoughts. Chris Hughton has been criticised in some quarters recently for not putting subs on early enough, well not today. He bought Redmond on straight after equalising, or rather he was going to bring him on when we scored – but more importantly, didn’t change his mind. All three subs were attack minded and all before the 75 minute mark. Also N’Daw looks like he is going to be a useful player in the middle, some superb passes.

I hope that this victory will give us a bit of a kickstart and we now go on a bit of a run.

So next up our final game in the Europa League on thursday, let’s hope we go out with a win. (Of course you never know, Braga MIGHT beat Brugge and then… well who knows!!)