Job done I think. Just. An away goal could be vital and we learned an awful lot in what turned into a less than an entertaining game after a promising opening 20 minutes or so. Barry Bannan opened the scoring, but Ardhe Nuhiu is being credited with the equaliser with what must be the faintest of touches, fooling Brad Guzan during the first half.

It started extremely brightly, Rapid struggling to cope with the pace and vigour of our young lions, Marc Albrighton once again standing out early on. In fact, it was quite fitting that it was Marc’s impressive work down the right which left the Rapid left back tripping over himself that provided the opportunity to serve up a square ball to Barry Bannan that he couldn’t miss from six yards out. He didn’t.

Rapid responded positively and our makeshift side definitely creaked under the pressure here and there. The centre half pairing of Davies and Beye looked pretty weak at times. Beye in particular, I think, frequently forgetting that’s the role he was playing, caught out of position and far from impressive in the air.

Rapid’s goal came just after the half hour mark and perhaps had even more good fortune attached to it than their single goal in the same fixture last season. Stefan Hoffman swung a teasing cross into the box from the right which Beye and Davies failed to deal with. Nuhiu challenged for the ball, but replays don’t reveal more than him getting his hair on it, leaving Brad Guzan flat footed and unable to reach the ball as its spin just took it off course enough to sneak in at the back post.

Guzan made a couple of fine saves during the course of the game and certainly had a busier night than Hedl at the opposite end. The home crowd didn’t give him an easy time, protesting in unison to the referee as Guzan took his time restarting the game with a free kick and he responded by booking the American. They also threw objects at him during the second half, but not to be intimated easily, he picked something up and calmly showed the referee who passed it on to the fourth official.

With Bannan playing just behind Emile Heskey, who didn’t exactly lead from the front in the way Carew did last weekend, Hogg and Reo-Coker were always going to be under a lot of pressure in the middle. It was definitely a tricky game for them, but I think they did a fine job, Hogg should be pleased with himself on what I think is his full debut in the senor side.

Bannan too deserves a lot of credit playing in a role the diminutive winger might not be best suited to, but he ran his heart out for 74 minutes, eventually making way for Nathan Delfouneso whose introduction seemed to introduce a little more spark as the game edged towards the final whistle.

Star of the show once again, Marc Albrighton went off with a little over 10 minutes to go, but his replacement, Andreas Weimann coming on to a mixed reception from his native Viennans, had a nightmare evening, lasting just 4 minutes before suffering an ankle injury in an unfortunate tackle. Clearly distressed, it was a shame to see him carried off on a stretcher and the home fans’ treatment of the Austrian left a lot to be desired. Isaiah Osbourne came on in his place for the final 5 minutes or so.

So, not quite matching the weekend’s performance, but that was to be expected and it was infinitely better than this time last year. The score draw was a very good result under the circumstances and I think we can feel a lot more confident that the injection of a little more quality and experience into the team at Villa Park next week ought to be enough to ensure our name will be in the hat for the group stage draw.

Now we can look ahead to Newcastle on Sunday and, with the big names coming back, plus Stephen Ireland possibly making his debut, this looks like an intelligently managed fixture. That’s generally the case when you don’t lose though and hindsight is always 20/20.

Confirmed Starting XI: Guzan, Lichaj, Beye, Davies, Warnock, Albrighton, Reo-Coker, Hogg, Downing, Bannan, Heskey.

Subs: Friedel, Clark, Weimann, Osbourne, Delfouneso, Baker, Lowry.

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