Blues boss Paul Jewell says his younger players will be very unfortunate if they are dropped for Saturday’s game at Leeds after impressing during last week’s 2-2 draw with Blackpool. Luke Hyam, Josh Carson and Tommy Smith all came into the side which came close to beating the Seasiders.
Jewell said: "I think every week is a selection poser. But you want problems in the right way. I felt the young lads did terrific, not just the young lads, the older lads as well.
"Everyone’s been speaking about what a young team we had out on Saturday against Blackpool and those lads haven’t done themselves any harm. If you don’t play on Saturday and you played last week, you can consider yourself unlucky.”
While the Blues boss says the age of his squad wasn’t called into question when they were winning, he is looking for more balance with more youthful players being targeted in this transfer window: "Nobody mentioned age when we were having that six-game spell when we were as good as anyone in the division, but I think for the future of the club we need to be looking at younger players.
"Getting a blend is the most important thing. We want young players but we want experience as well.”
Overall, Jewell feels his side has played well in their last few games without getting their just rewards: "The last two performances, against Birmingham and Blackpool, probably warranted more than the one point we got from the two games.
"I thought the performance against Blackpool, certainly until they scored, was excellent. We were in their faces, we played some good football, we were aggressive in the tackle and we played with a good tempo.
"We were obviously disappointed not to win, it felt like a loss after the game. But Blackpool are a decent team, they’ve been together for a while, they were in the Premier League last year and have aspirations of getting back in there.
"There was lots to be positive about. Conceding two goals was obviously disappointing but there were a lot of plus points.”