Someone got a shock and it WASN'T Blues

WHEN Blues were relegated from the Championship 11 months ago, their demotion played out, after a 1-0 win over Norwich, at a sun-kissed St Andrew's and against a backdrop of acceptance mixed with optimism.

- By BRIAN DICK

Gravity never lets you down, especially when you circle the plughole for as long as Blues did, the only irony was that ignominy on the pitch came when promises of salvation and glory were being made off it.

Nevertheless, third-tier football beckoned for the first time in three decades and while plenty with Blues at heart suggested it might be the reset the squad needed, others wondered whether the experience would be more trepidatious than that.

I was firmly in the later camp, fearing a League One campaign would be much more strenuous than a bucolic tour around the nation's market towns and seaside resorts, a test of mental resolve and physical courage.

Nine months of half-empty stadia, cabbage-patch pitches, poor referees and opponents determined to bloody a few Blue-noses lay in store.

Indeed, as technical director Craig Gardner and manager Chris Davies spot the summer spending heavily to build an imposing squad for all eventualities, Huddersfield were gazumped, Rotherham rejected or Wrexham outbid, focating it as the weeks and months have gone by.