Birmingham City will spend Christmas at Number One in League One after their 1-0 victory over Crawley Town on Monday night.
Jay Stansfield’s latest late strike clinched three more precious points for Blues away from home. Blues have now won seven games on the spin in all competitions and Chris Davies has rewarded his players by giving them Christmas Day off.
Blues are back in action on Boxing Day against relegation battlers Burton Albion. Here are our talking points from Crawley…
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Davies’ message did the job
The first half wasn’t much of a spectacle. Sky Sports must have lost most of the neutrals who tuned in before the referee blew his whistle for half-time.
Davies wasn’t delighted with Blues’ first half performance but he didn’t switch off. The manager’s message at half-time was blunt and to the point.
“I said to the players that we can definitely play better than that,” Davies explained. “Individually and collectively, we can improve on that and we need to because we weren’t quite ourselves, but at the same time they are pressing and chasing, so we have to move it quickly and attack the space behind. We have to be dangerous and thankfully they did that.”
Stansfield scores again…
“Twenty million down the drain, Jay Stansfield scores again…” Whilst Blues’ hierarchy will refute that price tag, they will be delighted that their bet on Stansfield is paying such handsome dividends.
Stansfield has 11 goals in 14 League One games – 13 across all competitions – and the best strike-rate of any player at the level.
The last three goals Stansfield has scored on the road have been crucial. A brace at Barnsley turned defeat into victory and Stansfield’s header decided a close game at Crawley. League One’s costliest ever player is making the difference for Blues.
Another clean sheet for the number one
Ryan Allsop has emphatically ended the goalkeeping debate since replacing Bailey Peacock-Farrell in October. The 32-year-old kept his ninth clean sheet in 17 starts for Blues against Crawley.
Crawley made life easy for Allsop by not having a single shot on target but the goalkeeper filled his teammates and supporters with confidence with his distribution and handling.
Davies has a problem to solve
Christoph Klarer belatedly picked up his fifth booking of the season to incur a one-game suspension. Having avoided a yellow card in seven successive league games, Klarer waited until the final game before the amnesty to get booked.
The likelihood is that Krystian Bielik and Ben Davies will be paired in the middle of defence for the first time together, with Ethan Laird and Lee Buchanan at full-back. Dion Sanderson is the natural replacement for Klarer if Davies wants to keep the same system but Sanderson has struggled in his recent appearances and there is quite a bit of speculation about his future heading into January.
