Blues ready for a HOME made shot at success

DEFINING HILL DICKINSON RUN WILL UNDERLINE PROGRESS WHATEVER THE OUTCOME.

- Joe Thomas

THAT was some 12 months, wasn't it? I think it is worth saying that - writing it, even - at the start of a new year that begins with such promise.

The visit of Brentford to Hill Dickinson Stadium on Sunday is the first of three games in a week that will be a bellwether for the second half of the season.

Take six points from the Premier League matches against the Bees and lowly Wolves and Everton will be within touching distance of the top four.

Overcome Sunderland next weekend and the fourth round of the FA Cup beckons - a competition it makes sense for the Blues to genuinely pursue given this, for the first year in five, will not be a January fraught with fear for the survival of the club's top flight status.

None of those games will be easy, particularly given the parlous state of David Moyes’ squad right now. All are winnable though.

I wrote in my last column how this run of fixtures, starting with the trip to Burnley, was a defining point in an already seismic campaign and that position still holds true after four points from the trip to Turf Moor and the midweek win at Nottingham Forest.

A good week and the patience the Friedkin Group want to approach this January transfer window with may well be tested if a shortcut to potential progress emerges.

Moyes is a believer in sustainable regeneration at the club he loves so much but he understands that football is unpredictable and you cannot simply pick and choose ‘when’ to make a step forward.

At the very least, European football would transform the club's appeal to the rung of talent he struggled to woo last summer without it.

Qualification at this early stage in what is supposed to be a painstaking regeneration of a club emerging from crisis could turbocharge the push forward, if handled correctly, and Moyes and TFG both appear astute custodians.