Match Report: Birmingham City 1-1 Walsall (3-4 Penalties)
Blues pick up a point in their first EFL Trophy match in almost three decades as a number of new signings got their first taste of action.
Blues’ first EFL Trophy match since the 1995 Wembley final ended in a penalty shoot-out defeat against Walsall.
The competition format means while games and results occur as normal, any draw finishes up with a penalty shoot-out to determine who secures an extra point.
It meant that following goals from Charlie Lakin and Christoph Klarer, Blues found themselves shooting from 12 yards for an extra point. Ryan Allsop made the first save but Paik Seung-Ho and Alfie May couldn’t beat Sam Hornby, leading to Blues being defeated.
It was a much changed team from Saturday with Chris Davies making eight changes. Klarer, May and Taylor Gardner-Hickman remained, the latter two in different roles, while Ben Davies, Tomoki Iwata, Scott Wright, Ayuma Yokoyama and Jay Stansfield made first starts.
This was a game that never really got going with Walsall holding shape and Blues having lots of the ball without penetrating.
There was one notable effort in the first 25 minutes or so, May blocking a long pass with the ball falling to Stansfield. He turned his marker and struck Hornby making the stop.
Nathan Lowe headed tamely on target from a right-wing cross while Iwata fed compatriot Yokoyama in behind to shoot at a Walsall defender.
Davies found the forward run of Gardner-Hickman but the right-back couldn’t make the most of it. Stansfield found Yokoyama to again shoot against a Walsall body with May volleying over from the resulting corner.
The second half began and Blues were quickly caught out. Connor Barrett ran behind Brandon Khela and as the youngster sprinted back, he was turned, allowing the Walsall wing-back to find ex-Blues academy man Charlie Lakin to finish confidently.
Marc Leonard hit the bar with a free-kick before Davies played his hand, unhappy with the performance. A triple sub took time to work with Gardner-Hickman caught by Weir, who unsuccessfully tried to catch Allsop off guard, before the right-back again couldn’t make the most of being found on a forward run.
The improvement of Blues’ display started to pay dividends. May had a shot from distance pushed away while Lowe fired towards the corner flag. May had another effort on target then Hornby made his best stop to date, tipping over Iwata’s powerful strike.
The resulting corner gave Blues their response. Klarer got his head to the ball first and the ball rebounded back to him, allowing him to fire into the roof of the net.
From there, it was all Blues. Hansson and Iwata linked up so May could have another effort on target. Stansfield headed towards goal from a Hansson cross which but a covering Walsall defender got in the way and May headed over from the resulting corner.
Excellent play gave Paik a chance that he couldn’t quite chance, having his effort blocked twice, and the South Korea international teed up May who was greedy and shot. And then he did the same again only for the ball to rebound to Iwata who was on target but again denied by a Walsall defender chucking himself in front of the ball.
And so to penalties. A strange quirk of this competition.
Taylor Allen, Krystian Bielik, Charlie Lakin and Lukas Jutkiewicz all powered home to make it 2-2. Jamille Matt and Paik Seung-Ho were denied by the opposition goalkeepers before Jamie Jellis found the top corner and Jay Stansfield silenced the travelling fans singing “20 million, you’re having a laugh”. Reyes Cleary then make it 4-3.
Alfie May stepped up last and proceeded to fire down the middle with Sam Hornby’s outstretched leg booting it away.
Blues get one point. Walsall get two. Ah well.
Lineups
Blues: Allsop; TGH Klarer Davies (Bielik 55) Khela (Cochrane 55); Leonard (Paik 55) Iwata; Wright (Jutkiewicz 76) May Yokoyama (Hansson 65); Stansfield. Unused: Mayo; Williams.
Walsall: Hornby; Okagbue Williams Allen; Barrett Maher (Jellis 69) Stirk Lakin Earing (Cleary 69) Weir; Lowe (Matt 81). Unused: Kilroy; Thomas Wragg Johnson.
Tactics
Davies experimented a bit here.
Rather than continue with the 4-3-3, which he perhaps couldn’t do without Willumson and Harris available, he moved to more of a 4-4-1-1, May playing just off Stansfield and Iwata and Leonard partnering one another.
In possession, Blues went to their normal three at the back but with a twist. Rather than the right back holding the touchline, TGH stepped inside with Wright holding width. Iwata was allowed to step forward down the left in the 8 role often occupied by Harris or Thor, creating the balance. Then May would drop off, creating something of a diamond.
Did it work? Not really. But I don’t think that was down to the tweak in style and more because of how we moved the ball. You could see the difference once Bielik, Cochrane and Paik warmed into the game second half and how much quicker our play flowed.
Walsall lined in a 5-4-1 shape, effectively, out of possession. Their attempts to close came via the wide centre backs and wing-backs, who tried to close quickly. So Maher would tend to close Khela with Barrett backing him up against Yokoyama while on the other side, Lakin tended to go for Klarer with Weir up against Wright. To their credit, they weren’t fooled by any rotation and stuck to whoever had the ball in the relevant role.
In possession, they wanted the ball but were fairly direct, looking to turn Blues and get down the flanks. It worked for the goal against the weaker side of Blues.
Blues set up with Wright closing Allen and TGH backing him up. May would close down Okagbue on the other flank with Yokoyama tracking Barrett. Once May moved, Leonard would step onto Stirk.
When the changes occurred, particularly Jutkiewicz for Wright, Blues reverted to a more normal shape to see the game out and looked comfortable as the key men got up to speed. Iwata was at the base with Paik stepping on. TGH held width while May played the inside wide role.
Players
A difficult game to make judgements given there were so many changes and our play wasn’t as sharp.
Allsop showed an intent to get the ball moving but his kicking wasn’t up to the standard he’s shown he’s capable of. Klarer was Klarer. Davies was fine at CB but generally, he’s not Bielik. His pass for TGH showed he does have the passing range and could grow into it. I feel sorry for Khela getting his minutes at left-back and him being turned for the goal didn’t help matters.
Leonard was Leonard. Iwata looks busy and tidy and hopefully grows into his role the more he plays. Wright was busy and looks to have a sharpness we’ve maybe lacked out wide, but it’s refining those decisions. Yokoyama had one or two moments but didn’t really make an impact. May was May, albeit he ended up too deep at points. Stansfield looks sharp but we didn’t get him anywhere near involved enough.
As noted above, the triple change made an impact with Bielik, Cochrane and Paik running things after their arrival. Hansson therefore received more of the ball and helped us keep it, but there’s still a level we need to see from him.
For Walsall, Lakin looks more mature these days and has hopefully found a nice landing spell. I like Allen and Weir, the left side that played okay against us in pre-season. I’m a huge Connor Barrett fan and he has the speed to be a big player for them.
Conclusions
Like the players section, it all depends how much you put into an EFL Trophy game.
We want to win the competition yet these games also feel like something of a chore and more an opportunity for experimentation. God, the idea of playing Fulham U21’s in a semi-competitive football match is depressing. We’ve just signed two of them.
I didn’t really like the experiment of May not leading the line – I think his energy and reading of the game and the crowd is important at the top of the pitch. I’d probably rather see Stansfield off him, but I’m open to seeing what Davies is going to come up with.
It’s beginning to feel like Bielik, Cochrane and Paik are imperative to this system working. As for the new signings, especially those that joined later in the window, we may need to give them time to adapt and find their feet in a system that is already set is played at a real intensity when led by the right people.
We’ve got a good break until the Wrexham game. It’s a shame we’ll be missing Laird and Harris, but we’ve got the squad to deal with injuries now, and it’s tme for people to step up.
There was something of the pre season about that game but Davies did need to get a number of new players out there.
I can't ever remember feeling less excited about a penalty shoot out, it is a grim competition.
The subs again made a difference, and Iwata was very good once he switched to a deeper role.
Credit to Walsall, and nice to see Charlie Lakin doing well.