Often Partisan

Spirit

Blues came crashing back down to Earth last night, losing 3-1 away to Middlesborough once again undoing the momentum gained from an important win. Despite losing two players to second yellow cards Boro were able to hang on – and even improve – on their winning scoreline, with Lee Tomlin able to capitalise on a defensive error to score a third for Aitor Karanka’s side.

As one would expect, there has been much anguish once again from Blues fans online. Despite not dropping a place, Blues are now only four clear of the bottom three without a game this weekend; if results conspire against them Lee Clark’s men could head into their next game in the relegation places. Is it time to panic?

There are a couple of worrying factors that we can take straight off the game without needing to analyse the performance – the injury to Lee Novak and the booking of Paul Robinson. Lee Novak was stretchered off deep into first half injury time and I think there has to be a worry that an injury will keep him out of the last five games. Novak has been a hard worker for the side; he might not be the 20 goal a season striker we crave but his work ethic is second to none and I think Blues are a poorer side without him in it.

Robbo’s booking is his 14th of the season and one more will land him with a three match suspension – something Blues can ill afford bearing in mind the lack of experience Blues have in the centre back department. Aaron Martin has 24 appearances at this level; Will Packwood 16 and Tom Thorpe just three – and with what is going to be five crunch games in the next month the prospect of playing three of them without someone like Robbo at the back is worrying indeed.

I have to admit, I don’t like looking at other results and relying on other teams to get results to help us out. Blues’ fate is still in their own hands and the fact is they need to pick up points in the coming games – especially at home. As much as people blame Clark I think the players need to make chances count in the next couple of games; when the heat has been on they’ve picked up points against Millwall and Doncaster and they need to show that spirit once again in the next couple of games against Forest and Blackburn.

The away fans have been magnificent in backing the team – I fully believe the faithful who attended Doncaster helped turn the tide in the second half and spurred on the team to get a result and as such I think the home fans need to take that into account and make St Andrews a cauldron of noise once more for the visit of Blackburn. For all the problems off the pitch the most help we as fans can give to the club right now is to back the players and to try to urge them on to winning – after all, I think relegation would only make it harder to sell the club and make it harder for any new owners to help the club bounce back to where it once was.

Talking Points sponsored by John Hicken Industrial roofing and cladding materials

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