Assistant manager Stuart Taylor was “massively disappointed” by the Blues performance as they were beaten 1-0 by League Two Cambridge United at the Abbey Stadium in their final pre-season friendly. Taylor felt the display didn’t match the standards of previous friendlies or training.
"Massively disappointed, there’s been a lot of good stuff in training, good stuff been in the previous games and none of that was taken into today’s game, unfortunately,” he said.
"Sometimes it’s one of those things, do you put it down to it being a bad day at the office or are there other reasons or other factors to that?
"But certainly there have been a lot of words been said after the game, there were a lot of things said at half-time, the standard wasn’t anywhere near what they’re used to or capable of doing.
"We saw a little reaction when they came out in the second half. The second half was better even if the intensity of the game was still not there.
"The tempo, even the style of play we want wasn’t there either and that’s both in possession and out of possession, so we’re disappointed with that and the lads were too.”
With 6ft 5in tall Oli Hawkins up front was there an attempt to be more direct? "The slickness wasn’t there, the lads did try and play but they didn’t move the ball quick enough and therefore we couldn’t open up their defensive line and that’s what happens when you don’t move the ball quick enough, you find it difficult.”
Reflecting further and towards manager Paul Lambert selecting his XI next week, he added: "You can put it down to a couple of factors, maybe it being a bad day of the office, but the manager’s got a team to pick and he has to go by what he thinks is going to be right.
"A lot of it will be judged on the full pre-season, but certainly from today it was disappointing. And the lads know that.”
Regarding Hawkins, he said: "I thought he did very well. Earlier on he gave us that presence that we’ve probably missed in terms of flick-ons and being that presence in both boxes, defensively as well from set pieces.
"Even when the ball went out in wider areas, it was great to see him getting in there. In training, he’s been in there and finishing very, very well. The only thing I would question is that we got into wider areas, we worked it reasonably well at times but that final ball into the box wasn’t good enough, so therefore we couldn’t see him going and attacking it, which was disappointing.”
Does the big frontman give the Blues a Plan B? "I think it’s just a different style of play in terms of getting it in to him, although it may be a 50-yard pass, it is a pass, it’s not a lump forward, it’s not direct. Ideally you want to go and score a goal was quickly as you can.
"Sometimes you’ve got to be patient, you’ve got to probe, you’ve got to go in and then back out the other side, find different ways of breaking teams down.
"He’s a big lump of a boy, very, very strong, but he’s got a good touch as well so we can rap it into his feet and get midfield runners off him and go and play.
"So, it does come back to different styles of how we want to go and play, different paths of going and breaking teams down and he gives us that option.”
James Norwood made his first appearance of pre-season as a half-time sub for Hawkins and Taylor says it will take a little time for the former Tranmere made to get back to the top of his game.
"It just comes down to a fitness thing,” he said. "He’s been out for near enough a year, as has Kane [Vincent-Young]. The two of them were massively missed last season.
"Nors started the season on fire, scored lots of goals but towards the end of his time he was obviously playing through injuries.
"He went and got operated, got fixed, has come back now and it’s just a case of building him back up. It does take time to get him built back up and make sure he’s back and he’s not re-injured. We just need to make sure we keep working on him and make sure he gets back to being his lively self with his work ethic up top, closing down defenders and getting goals.”
Asked about reports that the Blues had rebuffed a £2 million offer from Crystal Palace for midfielder Flynn Downes, Taylor responded: "I have absolutely no idea, I’m being honest with you, I don’t deal with all that, what offers are coming in.
"I just make sure we’re training as well as we can and doing whatever needs to be done and making sure the lads are ready for the Saturday and assist the gaffer as much as possible to go and pick the team.
"But when it comes to things like that, it’s got nothing to do with me, that’s something to speak to [owner] Marcus [Evans], [general manager of football operations] Lee [O’Neill] or the gaffer about.”