Birmingham City battle ignites, Chris Davies solves problem and the missing thing that will happen

Birmingham City cruised to another three points by dismissing Bristol Rovers with one of their most dominant displays of the season.

Lee Buchanan’s first goal for Blues and Jay Stansfield’s 12th of the campaign put Blues two goals up at half-time and Rovers never looked like getting back into the game. Blues married up their customary 67 percent possession with 26 shots, eight of which were on target, compared to Rovers’ three.

Blues moved up to second place in the League One table as a result of Wrexham failing to beat lowly Cambridge United on home turf. Chris Davies’ side also have one game-in-hand on league leaders Wycombe Wanderers and two on Wrexham.

Here are our talking points from a win over Bristol Rovers which extended Blues’ unbeaten home record in League One…

READ: Blues player gets dressing room round of applause from teammates and Davies

READ: Player ratings after Buchanan and Stansfield ease Blues past Bristol Rovers

Buchanan sparks one helluva battle

Buchanan’s timely return to fitness to replace the injured Alex Cochrane at left-back has shown the embarrassment of riches available to Davies. A player with 102 Championship appearances under his belt at the age of 23 was never going to be a downgrade and so it has proved.

In his two appearances under Davies, Buchanan has shown the intelligence to play left-back in two different ways. After inverting to good effect at Exeter in midweek, Buchanan played as a more orthodox left-back against Rovers.

One thing Davies wants from his full-backs, particularly the ones who are given more licence to get forward, is goal contributions. Cochrane has popped up with a couple of assists and Buchanan, on his first league outing in seven months, netted his first Blues goal with an excellent strike.

There were countless times last season when Blues fans bemoaned Buchanan shooting wildly from range, but his precise finish from 20 yards provoked an entirely different response. Buchanan has sparked what promises to be an intriguing battle for the left-back position.

Davies has found the right mix in defence

Blues struggled to keep clean sheets in the opening weeks of the season but Davies has discovered the right formula in recent weeks. The team kept three clean sheets in their opening 14 League One matches, in comparison to three in the last four.

The introduction of Ryan Allsop in goal, who has been a revelation with his hands and his feet, and Ben Davies at centre-back has played a part. Ben Davies is the no-nonsense, natural born defender that Chris Davies’ system needs to flourish.

Davies commented: “I think we’ve looked solid since that Shrewsbury game. We don’t give away counter-attacks, we look strong on set pieces, and we defend the wide areas well when they’re crossing the ball. I always fancy us to score and it’s important we don’t give anything away. Substitutes add to that because just when we needed a little more one-v-one on the sides Ethan Laird came on and closed well. It was a good team performance.”

Blues have started to manage games

A lot has been made about Blues’ ability to come from behind to record victories this season, but it’s worth noting that they haven’t lost any of the 16 games where they have scored first. Two-nil has become quite a common scoreline for Blues with this being the fifth time it’s happened this season.

You can almost see the game management skills of midfield maestros Tomoki Iwata and Paik Seung-ho kick in when Blues get two goals to the good.

“There’s always a little bit of jeopardy in the game when it’s still two-nil and we could control that a little bit better at times by keeping the ball for longer, and make them jump and press a bit more, which will naturally open up space for us, but then again we still had five big chances in the game,” Davies said.

“You want that third goal because you want to open up that bit of a margin but I thought we were good. As I said to the players before the game, there can be no complacency because they’ve got some players that won’t be fazed by playing here.”

The League One hammering will come

Having said all of that, it would be nice to see Blues dish out their first demolition in League One this Christmas. With games against relegation battlers Crawley Town and Burton Albion that feels possible.

For all their dominance in games, Blues still haven’t beaten an opponent by more than two goals in a League One game. There have been a couple of maulings in the Vertu Trophy and it is a matter of time before Blues hand out a real beating in the league.