Match Report: Birmingham City 2-1 Wigan Athletic
Blues record their first home win of the league season thanks to goals from Alfie May and Scott Wright.
A packed out St.Andrews witnessed Birmingham City’s first home win of the League One campaign to finish an extraordinary week in style.
Alfie May continued his perfect start to the season to give Blues a deserved half-time lead. Wigan responded positively in the second half and Thelo Aasgaard equalised.
Chris Davies utilised his star-studded bench and it paid off as Wigan dropped to ten men, new man Scott Wright firing home from close range to send the fans into raptures.
Davies opted for a strong XI in midweek and made three changes here. Bailey Peacock-Farrell and Luke Harris returned to the XI while Taylor Gardner-Hickman made his first start. Ryan Allsop and Marc Leonard dropped to the bench while Keshi Anderson is injured.
The game started at a fast pace and Blues took two minutes to have an effort at goal, Emil Hansson finding Ethan Laird to volley towards goal. At the other end, Matt Smith also saw a volley heading on target blocked.
The opener came after a good spell of Blues pressure. Wigan switched off with their press and Christoph Klarer was able to find Willumson in space. He turned and quickly played May in behind. The striker beat the offside trap and finished coolly.
Blues spent much of the following period on top but only had a teasing, whipped Paik Seung-Ho delivery just headed clear to show for it. That was until Sam Tickle made a double stop from Hansson and Willumson after good work from Laird and Harris while Willumson almost produced a moment of brilliance, turning his man on the edge of the box but being unable to poke beyond Tickle.
Wigan had their first effort on target at the end of the half, Aasgaard heading down with Peacock-Farrell making the stop.
That was a warning sign that would continue into the second half. A change of shape gave Wigan the advantage. A left-wing cross found Dion Rankine free to volley at a Blues body and a deliver from the other flank allowed Joe Hugill to head on target. Rankine had two more efforts, volleying on target from a cleared long throw and skewing high and wide after getting in down the right.
The goal did come. Good play down the right led to Aasgaard receiving the ball. He struck low and through Peacock-Farrell, who allowed the ball to slip through his legs.
It was almost two a moment later when Rankine cut back for Smith to strike wide. Immediately at the other end, Wright’s through ball for May almost found the bottom corner.
The big turning point was Steven Sessegnon going off injured. It left Wigan with 10 men and Blues were quick to pounce.
Tickle was given catching practice by Yokoyama before Paik stung his palms. Klarer ended a good spell with a deflected effort. Leonard delivered for Alfons Sampsted whose header across goal just evaded two Blues players thanks to Jason Kerr’s header and Yokoyama fired wide.
The goal finally came just after nine minutes added time was announced. A short corner was delivered by Paik with Klarer and Willumson keeping the ball alive. The former’s backheel fell for Wright who lifted the ball above the onrushing defenders and sparked limbs in the Tilton.
Wright came close to a second with a curling effort from distance, though only after Klarer had denied Aasgaard adding a second with a timely block.
Another learning curve but another three points.
Lineups
Blues: BPF; Laird (Sampsted 50) Klarer Bielik Cochrane; Paik TGH (Leonard 61) Thor; Harris (Wright 50) May (Dykes 73) Hansson (Yokoyama 73). Unused: Allsop; Davies.
Wigan: Tickle; Carragher (Sessegnon 46) Kerr Aimson Chambers; M.Smith (S.Smith 70) Adeeko (Weir 60); Thomas Aasgaard Rankine (McManaman 70); Hugill (Taylor 60). Unused: Lonergan; Sibbick.
Tactics
Blues were again in the ascendancy playing a 4-3-3 turned 3-2-4-1 with Harris having license to drift in field.
Like Wycombe and Leyton Orient before them, Wigan utilised a 4-1-4-1 to try and stop Blues, going almost man-for-man.
Adeeko stepped up with Aasgaard to close the midfield with Rankine looking to stop Klarer and Thomas v Cochrane. Hugill then had the dual role of closing Bielik and Peacock-Farrell. Chambers was sharp out to Laird with Carragher similar with Hansson on the other flank, allowing the two centre-backs and Smith to focus on Willumson, May and Harris.
Blues’ route to get past this was to utilise Peacock-Farrell, trying to draw on Hugill and open up the space for somebody else. Often this was Bielik or Cochrane. If a spare man was allowed, it was Klarer, largely because Wigan needed to get set with allowing Rankine to close him and have Chambers ready for Laird.
In possession, Wigan were fairly similar, tasking Carragher to be the outlet with Thomas drifting infield off the right. Their aim was to make headway down the right, asking Chambers to make late overlapping runs for Rankine, creating a 2v1 situation if possible and hoping to attack the back post.
Wigan made a tactical change at half-time which changed the game.
Sessegnon replaced Carragher and started inverting into midfield. Meanwhile, the wingers switched sides. It allowed Rankine to pick up possession from a right wing-back position with Adeeko already ahead of him. Meanwhile, rather than Sessegnon supporting, it was Kerr driving forward from CB.
And Blues never really got to grips with it. It led to several moments in which the ball went wide for deliveries or to be played back into the centre.
Then Sessegnon went off injured. Wigan reverted to a more classic 4-4-1 with ten men, having McManaman go from RWB to ST, Taylor and Thomas supporting with Aasgaard joining Weir in midfield and Scott Smith playing RB.
Players
Goalkeeper errors are going to happen when you’re a League One club playing such a style of football. But we may have to have a conversation about Bailey Peacock-Farrell.
The 27-year-old has shown his quality at times, his two-footedness and short passing game fine while his performance on opening day vs Reading was strong. However, he is increasingly finding himself caught in possession, costing us a goal against Leyton Orient and almost one or two others. And letting a shot go through his legs here. It’s the start he envisaged and with somebody as strong at this level as Allsop on the bench, he may not get many more chances to respond from such errors.
Gardner-Hickman had an okay debut. It’s not easy to come into this team almost cold but he did okay. Blues dominated the first half and he was a part of that. He’s tenacious, has a good frame and his outside of the boot pass to Hansson inside the area was gorgeous. That said, he probably did need to come off when he did to help get some control back in the game.
The Harris out wide right experiment didn’t really work. He struggled with his back to goal, particularly having a centre back up against him a fair amount of the game.
Klarer and Bielik were sound. Cochrane and Laird didn’t have it easy at points being doubled up on but also got forward to good effect. Paik was his usual busy, probing self. Hansson had moments but we’re still waiting for the explosion. Willumson was excellent. May got his goal and again the set the tone.
Sampsted and Wright got good game time off the bench. The former was steady, making good decisions without being explosive. The latter got his goal and looked bright, albeit it’s clear he has work to do to find his role. Leonard ran the show as Blues began to dominate again while Dykes and Yokoyama were effective enough.
For Wigan, Kerr was impressive at centre-back, particularly how he stepped up second half. Rankine and Chambers also performed well, linking up in the first half and sticking to task. You can see why Tickle and Aasgaard are so highly rated – they look players ready, or close to ready, to stepping up.
Conclusions
We’ve now got 10 points from four games while being left with the feeling that there is so much more to come. It’s a good place to be.
What we are doing more and more is earning the right to play. You can’t just expect to turn up and dominate. You have to work harder than your opponent and play better football. We did that here in the first half.
Credit to Wigan. They tried to play their way out and match us for shape and energy. It didn’t work first half but the second half change was a bold and impressive one that paid off against tiring legs – Blues had played against Fulham on Tuesday while Wigan were sat at home resting. No matter the quality of player, tiring legs will always be a thing and this is where Blues have to show a little more control in games.
I think this is partly where Davies will be looking for his on-pitch generals. Players that see the change and not only adapt, but help others to do so. It was a big problem last year and hopefully the quality and intelligence of the incoming players will help.
Getting the win was important given how the days prior had gone. The noise around the Stansfield deal – I’ll hopefully touch on that in a longer written piece – has been big and it was important that we backed it up at home. It didn’t matter how we got the win, just that we won. And the celebrations for the winner showed how together the club is feeling right now.
It’s Walsall in the EFL Trophy on Tuesday, where we will surely see a much changed XI and some of the new players get minutes under their belt. Then a well deserved chance to reset and get ready for Wrexham.
The coverage is going to be sickening.
Nice one, Ryan. The win was the important thing with a number of excellent individual performances. Regarding BPF, it was a daft error but not his first and,stating the obvious, I know, has to be sorted ASAP.