Blues’ forgotten man fires timely reminder
BLUES dodged a banana skin at the New Lawn, scoring two second-half goals to overhaul feisty Forest Green in their FA Cup third-round tie.
Having slipped behind to Ben Stevenson’s rocket, they re-organised and levelled through Lukas Jutkiewicz. Kevin Long scored for the first time in two years to secure Blues a fourth-round visit to Blackburn.
While mission was accomplished, John Eustace’s men went the long way round to victory. Here are the talking points.
Three times a hero
It’s impossible not to start with that save. Neil Etheridge didn’t have any chance with Stevenson’s goal but he did produce a good stop to deny Myles Peart-Harris to keep the score down to 1-0.
By the time he was next in the spotlight Blues had equalised, a neat finish from Jutkiewicz, and seemed set to assert their dominance. All that might never have come to pass without a remarkable triple save from Blues’ goalkeeper.
First, he flew to his right to tip Regan Hendry’s long-range drive onto the bar.
That was a really good save. To pick himself up and deny Matt Stevens from seven yards was almost miraculous.
Then to claw the ball away from the goal-line as the striker looked to pounce was simply outstanding.
Etheridge saved Blues three times in two seconds and, without indulging in hyperbole, there probably won’t be a better save in the FA Cup this season. Not bad for a man playing just his second game of the campaign.
Mojo required
Krystian Bielik has not been as effective since returning from the World Cup. He seems to be much more laboured and has far less influence on games.
Indeed, his first 45 minutes were really, really bad. He didn’t look as though he wanted the ball, when he had it he couldn’t retain it and when he was trying to win it back he invariably ended up conceding a free-kick.
The low point was towards the end of the first half when he carried possession up to halfway, tried to poke a pass through to Scott Hogan but telegraphed it.
Forest Green intercepted and quickly set off on the counter.
The 25-year-old’s shoulders just slumped as the hosts went up the other end. Jutkiewicz gave him a bit of a talking-to and shoved the midfielder back towards his own goal.
To be fair to Bielik, he was far better in the second half – having Alfie Chang alongside him seemed to help massively – and he almost created a third goal when he picked up possession deep in his own half and released Tahith Chong with the kind of pass he was playing earlier in the season. Blues desperately need Bielik to rediscover his mojo.
An important difference
Bielik was just one of several players out of sorts in that first half. Both wing-backs really failed to impose themselves, Jordan James seemed to get dragged into the mire of the collective performance and Hogan was virtually anonymous.
A goal down to a team bottom of League One and who hadn’t won in more than a month, on the brink of extending their losing run to five games and suffering the same ignominy as that imposed by Plymouth last season, things looked bleak for Blues.
No-one is anointing them FA Cup champions – it’s been nearly a decade since they won at Blackburn – but they do deserve credit for finding a way past Rovers. Last season, Lee Bowyer’s outfit couldn’t rouse themselves against Plymouth and were ultimately eliminated from the competition at the first hurdle.
It was the moment a promising start to the 2021/2022 campaign crossed into the realms of catastrophe.
They only won four more times and stayed up by the skin of their teeth. Hopefully this vintage is made of stronger stuff.
Eustace doesn’t seem as though he will be overwhelmed by the clouds that hang above St Andrew’s. He comes across as a positive and solution-focused head coach and his side did well not to throw in the towel at the New Lawn. It is only a baby step after four consecutive losses but it could well turn out to be an important one.
Wingers not wing-backs
Blues’ revival came after they went to a 4-4-2, with Auston Trusty at leftback and Hannibal Mejbri and Chong either side of Bielik and Chang.
I asked Eustace about the prospect of starting with a four, rather than a five, and he hardly bit my hand off, instead going down the ‘‘string to our bow’’ and ‘‘chasing a game’’ route.
However, what did stand out was Trusty’s comfort – albeit against League One opposition – as a fullback.
The American has played as a leftsided centre-back all season but has spent barely any time playing leftback.
With Long improving and Dion Sanderson looking more mobile than he had at Ashton Gate, the possibility is left hanging there, even if I don’t think Eustace is minded to go that way at the start of a Championship game any time soon.
Also worth pointing out is how comfortable Chong looked on the left of midfield, and Juninho Bacuna looked more suited to the role on the right than out-of-sorts Hannibal did.
We all know what Jutkiewicz can do in that set-up.
However, don’t hold your breath.