Birmingham City come unstuck in chaos as Alfie May question awaits answer

Mansfield Town stopped the Birmingham City League One juggernaut in its tracks on Saturday afternoon.

For just the third time this season, Blues failed to record a victory in a league match. The Stags secured a credible 1-1 draw and celebrated jubilantly afterwards.

Their point was sealed by Lee Gregory’s free-kick after Willum Willumsson had given Blues an early lead at Field Mill. Blues maintained their three-point cushion to second place thanks to results elsewhere.

READ: Davies makes feelings clear on ‘what a waste of money’ chant after Blues draw

READ: Blues player ratings after Lyndon Dykes miss hands Mansfield 1-1 draw

Here are our Blues taking points after the Mansfield draw…

Mansfield created chaos

Mansfield didn’t follow Charlton’s blueprint for beating Blues by pressing relentlessly. Probably because their ageing squad wouldn’t have been able to carry out that game plan days after an energy sapping 2-1 win at Wigan.

Nigel Clough’s side instead used their experience to hang on in there and mount a second half onslaught. The final 30 minutes at Field Mill, once the hosts had equalised, were complete chaos.

Blues haven’t been dragged into that kind of game previously. Chris Davies likes his team to have control and they lost it in the second half.

It wasn’t just Mansfield inflicting blows from thereon, although they did create the best chances through Stephen McLaughlin and a Will Evans one-on-one that somehow didn’t even result in a shot at goal, Blues had their moments too.

Lyndon Dykes had to score from inside the six-yard box moments after Gregory’s goal and Keshi Anderson should have done better with one looped effort.

Why not May?

There is nothing wrong with selecting Dykes. The Scot is the most proven of Blues’ strikers at Championship level and has waited patiently for chances.

The talking point is why Dykes is used as the striker alongside Jay Stansfield but Alfie May isn’t.

May and Stansfield have played regularly together but never with May as the most advanced. Davies is seemingly only willing to play Stansfield deeper when Dykes starts.

Stansfield is happy in both positions, whereas May looks most suitable for the striker position in this Blues system. It would be nice to see them paired together in a different order at some stage.

Maybe more changes were needed

Davies’ only two changes to his starting line-up saw Stansfield and Dykes come in for May and the injured Emil Hansson. One or two more might have helped prevent Blues from running out of steam at Mansfield.

Breaking up the partnership of Paik Seung-ho and Tomoki Iwata is understandably something Davies is reluctant to do, but it has led to flat performances in the final game of Blues’ last two three-game weeks.

Iwata was sluggish at Charlton after starring in wins over Peterborough and Huddersfield and the Japanese midfielder was dead on his feet before Davies replaced him with Marc Leonard. With Leonard such a capable back-up, Davies might have to start rotating him in more frequently to maintain the intensity he wants from his team.

Leonard looked rusty to begin with but once he got up to speed the midfielder was dictating and moving the ball sharply, although admittedly that was quite late in the day at Field Mill.

Klarer escapes a booking

Christoph Klarer will be available for Blues’ next League One match after somehow avoiding a caution at Mansfield. He took out his man from behind in the first half and conceded the free-kick that led to Mansfield’s equaliser in the second.

The referee got a few decisions wrong and was quite lenient to a few players, but that leniency worked in Blues’ favour where Klarer is concerned.

Still on four League One bookings, Klarer will be eligible to play when Blues take on Northampton in two weeks’ time.

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