Lion of Vienna Suite's very own Dan Murphy (@Murbroski on Twitter - give him a follow) tells me we haven't won away from home in 324 days, and I certainly didn't expect that to change on Tuesday night. Here are five things we can take from our defeat to Birmingham City.
1) Gary 'The Bastard' Madine
I'm not happy about all this bust up bollocks. I'm not sure if dear old Neil has noticed, but our squad isn't exactly thriving with centre forwards at the moment. Amoebi has gone (sob), Heskey is about 5 years past his sell by date, dear old Max Clayton is nursing yet another injury and Kaiyne Woolery can't seem to get a game for love nor money. You'd think Lennon would be trying his hardest to keep everyone happy during these troubled times rather than bickering with his squad members, wouldn't you? We don't know the ins and outs of it, but the lack of height up front certainly didn't help us.
2) Zach Clough, Lone Ranger
You're probably wondering why I didn't mention Zach in my point above; well, dear reader, that's because I have a whole section dedicated to the boy wonder from Denton. The lad is 5"7. No disrespect to him, but that's not very tall. So, to play him up top on his own, regardless of squad issues or whatever other bullshit we're told, is simply ridiculous. It puts him at risk of injury from a lumbering opposition centre half and, in my opinion, is part of Lennon's piss poor team selection away from home.
3) Will Anyone Ever Play In Their Natural Position?
I'm getting sick and tired of seeing players being played out of position. I understand, as I'm sure you do too, that our squad is paper thin at the moment. HOWEVER. That is no excuse for using players in positions they're unfamiliar with. I've already mentioned that Kaiyne Woolery seems to be struggling to get a game, and why we didn't throw him into the mix on Tuesday is beyond me. He would've offered us something else up front; his pace and strength allowing us to use him as an outlet. Instead we decided to play various different systems that revolved around Zach Clough, all of which donot work. WHY.
4) Dorian Dervite & The Return Of Derik
He's back! Back from the dead! Derik Osede returns and I am so happy. Although he started the night at right back, where he's been notably shite in the past, I was delighted to see him drop in at centre half when Dorian Dervite limped off with an injury. I hope he can get back to some of the form he showed at the beginning of the season, when he and Prince looked to be a force to be reckoned with, particularly alongside Rob Holding.
5) Ben Amos
If this lad's injured, I'll eat my hat. Although he's pulled off some cracking saves on more than one occasion, his form has slowly slipped to the depths of despair this season. He's a shell of his former self and, in my opinion, needs a couple more games on the bench to gather this thoughts and remember how to stop the ball from going into the net.
I'll be honest, I don't have much hope for Saturday's game against Burnley, but you never know what could happen...*
*Who am I kidding. We're going to get battered.