Chris Davies issues Lukas Jutkiewicz reminder as Birmingham City chase a new record
Birmingham City enter their final three home games of the League One season against Barnsley on Saturday
Birmingham City are three games away from going unbeaten at home in a full league season.
St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park has been a fortress for Blues in their crusade to return to the Championship. Chris Davies’ side have won 17 and drawn three of their 20 home fixtures in League One to date.
Reading, Northampton and Blackpool are the only teams to avoid defeat in B9 this season, with Barnsley, Crawley Town and Mansfield to come.
Blues are one of only two teams in the EFL who are still unbeaten at home – the other being Championship club Burnley – but no team has taken more points than the League One leaders’ 54.
“It’s an intimidating place to go and I think it always has been,” Davies says of Blues’ success at St Andrew’s. “You go to St Andrew’s when the team’s doing well, it’s extremely intimidating for the opposition – I know that.
“You walk into our stadium now and we have a team full of confidence on the pitch and a really hostile atmosphere for the opposition, and it does make it harder.
“I’m looking forward to that to continue to grow as we go along. That’s one part of it and obviously the players on the pitch have been at a high level.
“They love playing at home. We start games generally quite aggressively and quickly and make it difficult for the opposition.
“But, as I’ve said so many times, all these records are just words at the end of the day, you have to go and prove it all over again.”
This weekend’s opponents Barnsley are among the best travellers in League One this term. Only Blues and Wycombe have taken more points on the road than the Tykes.
Blues’ comeback win at Oakwell in early December, sealed by two Jay Stansfield goals, is a highlight in this victorious season for Davies.
He gave a nod to veteran striker Lukas Jutkiewicz, who stepped off the bench that day to swing the game in Blues' favour.
“I put Jukey on at half-time and he was a catalyst for the change,” said Davies. “We needed some strength and physicality because we just couldn’t play on that pitch with the weather.
“As we’ve gone along, I’ve seen that there have been some conditions, particularly away from home, that make it very difficult to play as fluently as we want to. We’ve had to adapt and tweak things and how we ended up winning that game was a good example of that.
“It is definitely one of my favourite wins of the season. It just felt like it was a big moment for us.”