Chris Davies picks out Birmingham City player after ‘exceptional’ quality killed Exeter again

Birmingham City manager Chris Davies was speaking after the 1-0 win over Exeter City which kept his team top of League One

Chris Davies says Birmingham City’s pressing machine ‘smothered’ Exeter in the League One leaders’ latest victory.

Ethan Laird netted the only goal of the game at St Andrew’s but the scoreline didn’t reflect the full story. Whilst Blues didn’t create a bundle of chances to add to Laird’s goal, they didn’t give the Grecians a sniff at the other end.

Exeter didn’t have an attempt at goal to give Ryan Allsop his most routine clean sheet of the season. Davies credited Blues’ pressing power for that statistic.

He said: “Your strikers are your first defenders and your defenders are your first attackers these days with how you play. You defend from the front and they try and build up from the back short a lot. All the games we’ve had against them have been almost all in their half – them trying to pass, us pressing, then trying to break their block down. That’s been a pattern and I knew it would be like that again today. You don’t have to defend deep against them for any length of time.

“Our pressing was exceptional. It was led by the front three, but I thought Taylor (Gardner-Hickman) covered a lot of ground – I would be interested to see his physical numbers in the game today because he was everywhere. We smothered them. If you’re going to play against us like that it’s going to be hard because of our pressing.”

After setting up all three goals in Blues’ last league victory at Wigan, Laird scored his first goal for the club against Exeter. The right-back was deployed slightly deeper by Davies than usual, but he found his way into the box to volley home Alfie May’s left-wing cross just before half-time.

“He had a hybrid role today where he was part of the three to circulate the ball and had moments where he could join in,” commented Davies. “He took his goal very well and I do think there’s more goals for him at the back post because he’s got a great spring, he’s powerful. I’m pleased for him because he’s had a good few weeks.”