Blues were held to a draw in their second home game of the season against Bolton on Wednesday night, below is my take on the performances.
Starting XI
Stockdale – 6
Wasn’t troubled too much by a defensive Bolton side, carried out what he was troubled with well. Tried to get some counter attacked going with some impressive distribution.
Nsue – 7
Looked composed on the ball, defended well, tried to urge the team forward in the second half. Linked up well with Cotterill down the right hand side.
Roberts – 6
Looked shaky a times with some clearances, on a whole he coped with Bolton’s forwards quite well. Aerial presence especially useful during last nights game, with Bolton launching a lot of balls into the Blues box.
Morrison – 6
Didn’t really have time to affect the game before being taken off with a fractured nose.
Grounds – 7
Received a lot of stick from Blues fans at times but you can’t fault his desire, tried to lift the team in the second half and kick start some attacks from the back. Dealt with the threat of Morais very well, blocked an impressive number of crosses.
Man of the Match: Cotterill – 7
First start in a Blues shirt for some time, came into the game more in the second half. Despite lacking quality at times, his creativity was welcome back in the Blues team. Best chance of the night came from a deflected long range strike.
N’Doye – 6
Taken off at half time through injury, N’Doye struggled to impact the game in the first half. Shows signs of promise with defensive work and energy in the midfield but sometimes some simple passes went astray.
Kieftenbeld – 6
Gritty performance from the Dutch midfielder, in a game of little quality it was down to Kieftenbeld to break up Bolton attacks in the midfield. Didn’t affect the game too much on the ball.
Gardner – 7
The Bluenose put in a workman like performance for Blues in the midfield, Gardner was at the forefront of most of Blues attacking moves, but couldn’t provide that little bit of quality to breakdown the Wanderers defence.
Maghoma – 6
Following his match winning performance on Saturday against Bristol City, Maghoma couldn’t find the same creativity to break down Bolton, often got into some good positions but couldn’t find the killer ball.
Donaldson – 5
A tough night for the former Brentford man, tried but couldn’t help Blues going forward. Struggled to hold the ball up in the first half and never really impacted the game in the second half. Had one half chance that he ballooned into the Tilton.
Subs:
Shotton – 6
Worked well alongside Roberts at the back in what could turn out to be one of his last appearances at St Andrews. One loose pass to Grounds near the end which was frustrating but aside from that a solid performance.
Jutkiewicz – 6
Came on at half time for N’Doye. Provide Blues with an extra outlet up front with his aerial presence, helped to squeeze the side forward in the second half. Missed one half chance, firing a header over from a corner.
Vassell – 6
Impressive debut from the youngster, came on and used his pace to harry the Bolton defence into mistakes. My one worry was that he’d be slightly lightweight, based on yesterday’s performance that worry can be quashed. Will have a good future at Blues if he carries on like that.
Supporters Man of the Match
Every match we will be running a Twitter poll where you can choose your man of the match, please note due to the limited options on Twitter, we will tweet 2 votes and work out the winner from both.
Marc Roberts – 29%
Who was your #bcfc man of the match last night against #BWFC?
— We Are Birmingham (@WeAreBirmingham) August 16, 2017
Pt2… Who was your #bcfc man of the match last night against #BWFC?
— We Are Birmingham (@WeAreBirmingham) August 16, 2017
Officials – 5
Referee was poor, didn’t allow the game to flow and made some very questionable decisions. One moment in particular that stood out was the decision between referee and linesman to deem Clayton Donaldson offside from a goal kick, which is in fact impossible.
Bolton fans – 7
Attendance: 902
Average travelling numbers from Bolton, however it was a Tuesday night and their second away game of the week. Didn’t really make too much noise, but weren’t exactly given too much to shout about.