Match Report: Birmingham City 1-0 Huddersfield Town
Alfie May scored against the club that wanted him in the summer to give Blues a well deserved seventh win on the bounce in the league.
Alfie May's second half winner was enough for Birmingham City to see off Huddersfield Town and stretch their winning run to seven.
Huddersfield could have taken the lead within a minute but soon fell to the fate of those that came before as Blues took control. Alfie May and Jay Stansfield were both guilty of missing chances before combining for the only goal of the game.
Chris Davies was absent from the dugout due to suspension. He made three changes to his starting XI with May joined by Keshi Anderson and Ryan Allsop, the latter making his first league start for his boyhood club. Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Lyndon Dykes and Emil Hansson all dropped to the bench.
Blues again started slowly and Huddersfield were in after about 15 seconds, Mickel Miller failing to test Allsop. Blues almost got in behind twice before a flurry of chances at the other end as David Kasumu and Anthony Evans tested the new man in between the sticks.
The game then hit a lull as Blues found their feet in wet conditions. It was Willum Willumson that gave the side a lift, first seeing a free-kick tipped over by Jacob Chapman before beating two players and teeing up May to head over from three yards.
Alex Cochrane was wayward when returning a corner towards goal and the same could be said of May after a smart turn. Stansfield had the better opportunity, making the most of Christoph Klarer finding the run of Paik Seung-Ho but not turning the ball home.
The second half started as the first finished, Blues in the ascendancy and Anderson volleying towards goal before Stansfield again fluffed his lines, snatching at a shot following good work from Klarer and half time sub Alfons Sampsted.
Sampsted was bright and was involved in the goal, backing Stansfield to out pace Tom Lees. The England U21 man did just that before teeing up May for a tap in.
Blues had found their rhythm and finished the game confidently. Some smart play set Wright away to run 60 yards up field before curling over. Paik found Willumson to head wide. Hansson read a loose pass and forced a save before seeing a defensive block deny him and Chapman deny Paik.
The pressure continued with more good work from Wright getting Stansfield into a preferred position only for him to hit the side netting. His replacement Dykes almost got in on the action but Brodie Spencer produced a wonderful last ditch block.
Another tough start. Another very comfortable finish. Seven in a row.
Lineups
Blues: Allsop; TGH (Sampsted 46) Klarer Bielik Cochrane; Iwata Paik; Willumson May (Wright 68) Anderson (Hansson 64); Stansfield (Dykes 86). Unused: Peacock-Farrell; Davies Leonard.
Huddersfield: Chapman; Pearson Lees (Hogg 77) Spence; Sorensen Evans Kasumu (Hodge 76) Wiles Miller; Radulovic (Ladapo 60) Marshall (Koroma 60). Unused: Maxwell; Lonwijk Headley.
Tactics
This was fairly standard stuff as far as a 3-5-2 coming up against Blues 4-2-3-1 cum 3-2-4-1.
Huddersfield played from a mid-block, looking to sit off the Blues back three and send the wide central midfielders out to close Klarer and Cochrane. If Blues played into Iwata or Paik, Kasumu closed down with the rest closing in on the space around.
The primary change from the norm was how Huddersfield dealt with May and Willumson. Rather than ask the centre-backs to step out, it was the wing-backs that stepped up with them. Miller did well at this early doors and the pair weren’t able to turn out often. The idea was for the other wing-back to step back in to create a back four, but it also left Blues 4v4 with the Huddersfield defence.
That became a problem for them, especially with the quality of distribution from Klarer and the forward running of May and Paik.
This happened several times.
Stansfield firing wide in the first half. Sorensen tackles May who moves the ball anyway. Sorensen sprints back while Miller steps up with Thor. But Paik has run forward and Klarer has found him. Spencer has to race back to put Stansfield under pressure after he’s beaten Pearson.
Stansfield second half chance. Miller is out of position and Wiles is out at left wing back. Blues work it to Klarer who steps into space and with Wiles unsure as Thor drops off. Sampsted is able to attack the space in behind. Blues are 3v3 in the box leaving Stansfield free.
The goal. Bielik to Klarer. Miller steps up with Thor. Stansfield drops off Lees and is able to play first time to Sampsted, who plays the ball in behind so that Stanno can race Lees. Pearson has to cover the front post and hope Sorensen can cover. He can’t.
Ultimately, I don’t think Huddersfield were tight enough in their shape or worked hard enough out of possession at the top of the pitch to deny us and it left them exposed.
Duff moved to four at the back later on but this did little to change the flow of the game.
Players
Repetition is key. The back three. The midfield two. Willumson. Stansfield. Excellent.
On Willumson, it was his skill vs Rotherham that got us going, his goal against Posh and a couple of moments of brilliance here that ignited us. He’s proving important.
Allsop. He grew into it. A bit slow and tentative early doors. Shanked a couple. But had a solid game and made a couple of decent stops early doors.
Anderson and May were fine. They played their roles well. It didn’t really fall for the former while the latter got his goal. Playing a key role in the system is as important as playing the key role in the win.
Hansson and Wright enjoyed the space that opened up for them. Dykes won the physical battle in those final few minutes. Sampsted looked as good as he has since joining during the second half.
For Huddersfield, Brodie Spencer caught the eye – his recovery running was excellent.
Conclusions
It’s getting tough to make conclusions.
The games are following a similar pattern. Back foot for about 10. Settle for 10. Take control and barely concede another shot.
Remove the first ten minutes of the last four matches and we’ve conceded 14 shots. Only four of those have been inside of our penalty area. Three of those were Wrexham against ten men. Total dominance.
We are going to have competitive football matches this season. I’m confident of it. Still, I’m surprised at just how comfortable we’ve been against four sides many had as pre-season favourites. Even coming back from two-down against Posh, it never felt like we were in trouble.
It’s good to know we can perform without Davies on the sidelines. Especially having made three changes and endured the usual Indifferent start.
It’s also good to know we can back up our words after Bielik's “too good for League One" comment. I know we all think it, but it doesn’t half put a bigger target on our back having our captain say it.
It’s Charlton and Nathan Jones on Saturday. A side out of form, whose fans are frustrated by the style of football. They’re going to be awkward, direct and not pretty to watch – their fans weren’t particularly happy with it when they were picking up results. But it means that if they get ahead, they could make it more difficult than others have.
Do we make changes? I think Allsop and May keep their shirts. Anderson or Hansson? I’m comfortable with either. Sampsted or Gardner-Hickman? I can see arguments both ways. It’s nice to know that if a change is made, we shouldn’t endure too many issues.
Can we make it eight in a row? Well, I’ve not seen reason to back against us just yet.