Match Report: Blues 1-0 Lincoln City

Kieran Dowell's second half penalty gives Birmingham City a well deserved three points at St.Andrews to move 11 points clear at the top.

Birmingham City returned to winning ways against Lincoln City at St.Andrews on Saturday.

The hosts dominated the ball throughout and picked up the three points courtesy of a Kieran Dowell penalty in the second half. They came under a bit of pressure late on but survived to keep a 15^th clean sheet in 20 league matches.

Chris Davies made three changes, bringing Ryan Allsop, Jay Stansfield and Krystian Bielik back into the starting XI in place of Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Willum Willumson and Alfie May, who all dropped to the bench. Keshi Anderson and Marc Leonard returned to the squad with Brad Mayo, Alfons Sampsted and Luke Harris dropping out.

Blues got on the front foot from the off but couldn’t quite find the key chance, Taylor Gardner-Hickman's header back across goal the best they mustered. At the other end, Sean Roughan’s long throw was returned to him and the full-back smashed the ball over the bar.

Gardner-Hickman was heavily involved in Blues chances early on sneaking in from the right-hand side. He thought he had ended a superb move that spanned the entire pitch when he volleyed Paik Seung-Ho's cross on target, George Wickens producing an excellent reaction stop. The utility man was found again a moment later by Alex Cochrane but shanked his effort wide at the far post. Cochrane decided to go himself, catching a volley sweetly but hitting a Lincoln defender.

Lincoln weren’t offering much at the other end outside of the occasional long throw. Tom Bayliss saw a tame effort land at Allsop’s feet. Bielik managed to hoist a back-post corner on target before Ben Davies found the run of Tomoki Iwata into the area, the man from Japan unable to control the ball crisply enough under pressure.

The visitors were having issues and eventually had their goalkeeper go down to send out instructions. However, Hansson had the best chance of the half, cutting inside and curling just wide of the far post.

The second half started evenly but Blues soon found their stride, Stansfield reacting sharply to get a shot on target, Wickens making the save low down. On the hour mark, Gardner-Hickman found substitute Anderson with a cross and the winger teed up Stansfield for a simple finish only for Adam Jackson to make a fine last ditch challenge. Willumson saw his shot blocked in the immediate aftermath.

Finally, Blues got the moment they were looking for. Gardner-Hickman's cross was cut out for Iwata to run onto. He took one touch then beat Sam Clucas to the second, being blocked off in the process. Penalty given. Dowell got the nod over Stansfield and put the ball into the top corner.

Lincoln responded positively to going a goal down and gradually got closer to the Blues goal, something they had struggled to do all game. Blues, meanwhile, stopping utilising the same outlets as they sought to hold onto their lead. A back post cross was headed towards goal by Reeco Hackett-Fairchild while Iwata spanked over the bar at the other end.

The big chance for the visitors came after a rare mistake by Allsop, the keeper kicking the ball low down the centre of the pitch. Fortunately, Hackett-Fairchild got his attempted lob wrong and Blues breathed a sigh of relief.

Grant Hanley replaced Dowell and Blues set about defending their box from long throws and other set-pieces, a job they achieved with minimal fuss.

Back to winning ways. A 15^th clean sheet in 20. Blues are 11 points clear at the top.

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Lineups

Blues: Allsop; Bielik (Willumson 54) Klarer Davies Cochrane; Iwata Paik; Gardner-Hickman Dowell (Hanley 88) Hansson (Anderson 54); Stansfield (May 72). Unused: Peacock-Farrell; Leonard Jutkiewicz.

Lincoln: Wickens; Jackson (Hamer 81) O’Connor Roughan; Darikwa (Gardner 76) McGrandles Bayliss (Clucas 64) Jefferies; Makama (Hackett-Fairchild 64) Collins (Draper 64) House. Unused: Jeacock; Hamilton.

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Tactics

Blues switched up here.

Normally, we utilise one full-back and one winger holding the width, with the players on the other flank tucking in. Here, we switched up.

Both wingers held width. Paik stepped up into more of an attacking midfield position from the left with Dowell from the right. Bielik and Cochrane then dovetailed between sitting in next to Iwata, or offering as the third centre-back in build up, often tucking in once the ball moved wide, which kept Lincoln narrow and gave the wingers space to receive and play.

This can be seen in the image below, where Bielik has stepped into midfield to receive and switch the ball out to Hansson. He and Iwata are in the centre of the pitch, flanked by Dowell and Paik stepping forward. Gardner-Hickman is wide right, Hansson wide left and Stansfield in attack.

And then again here a moment later, Bielik has tucked right into the centre of the pitch with Paik and Dowell advanced.

The next image is from the second half, and you can see Cochrane has now stepped into midfield to support.

Why did we do this?

Firstly, because in Bielik and Cochrane, we had full-backs that appear better suited to receiving the ball deep with the game ahead of them rather than making forward, lung bursting runs. I mean, Bielik by trade is/was a central midfielder.

But also, Lincoln’s shape, was a 3-4-3 that quickly became mixtures of 4-4-1-1 and 4-5-1 and 5-4-1 defensively, depending on the situation.

Collins led the line and his responsibility was to watch Davies and Klarer. Makama was responsible for the inside right, often keeping an eye on Cochrane, with House just off, responsible for Iwata. Jefferies, LWB, was tasked with stepping up to close Bielik, but would have to time his press to ensure the centre-backs and Roughan were prepared to get out to Gardner-Hickman / stop forward runs. It meant that Blues often had a spare man available in defensive areas to play, and were happy to try and cut through the initial press by finding Bielik, Iwata or Cochrane in a slightly advanced position.

McGrandles and Bayliss were responsible for Paik and Dowell, but would be loathe to leave their positions in the centre of the pitch, trying to force everything out wide. Darikwa had responsibility for Hansson. The centre-backs stayed tight together on Stansfield.

The only time players would leave their positions was if their man moved into a wide position in the final third. So Bayliss would track the run of Paik, or O’Connor would move wide with Stansfield.

The biggest issue they had was that when Blues had possession down the left, Jefferies would be asked to tuck in as part of a four or five man midfield. But Roughan was tasked with supporting the centre-backs in denying Stansfield and often tucked in to close, leaving Gardner-Hickman free if Blues delivered quickly enough.

You can see in the image below, Jefferies is on the edge of the box with Dowell. After the miss, Roughan questions Jefferies as to why Gardner-Hickman is free in the area, to which Jefferies points to his other role.

Eventually, they abandoned this and pushed Roughan out to Gardner-Hickman to have responsibility and left Jefferies to tackle the centre of the pitch, becoming more of a 4-4-1-1 than a 5-4-1.

Later in the half, Roughan has come out to close Gardner-Hickman, which did leave Hansson free on the other side with McGrandles having followed Dowell into a more advanced position, allowing Blues to move the ball across the pitch leading to a shot. Pick your poison, I suppose.

Blues reverted to their usual shape early in the second half with Gardner-Hickman now advanced from right-back, Anderson holding width from left-wing, Willumson off Stansfield with Paik, Iwata and Dowell essentially a trio in midfield.

You can see this shape from the cross that led to Blues winning a penalty. Gardner-Hickman delivers. Four are in the area. Dowell and Iwata just outside with Cochrane pushing on to support.

Lincoln made a tweak after the goal, bringing on Gardner for Darikwa and very much becoming a 4-2-3-1 side with the front four pushing on higher, a gamble they felt they had to take. To their credit, it actually worked to a point as they built up some momentum.

Blues made a change on 89 with Hanley replacing Dowell. Blues moved to 3-5-2 with May and Anderson up top.

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Players

It’s so, so good to have Ryan Allsop back. There were a couple of interesting passes come his way today, perhaps down to tiredness of his team-mates and the pitch, but even when he does get one wrong, he just exudes a level of confidence and composure that settles everybody down. You never feel like he’s going to make a mistake. He was excellent.

Klarer and Davies were mostly sound and really stood up towards the end. Bielik and Cochrane did little wrong, impressive given the new shape that involved them stepping into midfield. I thought Bielik took the bull by the horns at points and was unfortunate that the tactical switch meant him coming off early.

Iwata was Iwata. Paik was superb, his link up down the left excellent. Dowell was tidy and his penalty excellent. Gardner-Hickman probably ought to have scored but him getting into the area, on the end of things and trying to make things happen down the right was a positive. I thought Hansson was lively during his time on the pitch and linked up well with Paik and Cochrane. And Stansfield was Stansfield, busy and alert despite a tough battle with their centre-backs.

Anderson and Willumson had a positive impact. The change of shape meant Willumson and Dowell could get on the ball higher up and get Paik moving from deeper while Anderson provided a speed, directness and power that was missing in our game.

For Lincoln, the centre-backs deserve praise for their efforts. I thought they defended the box excellently. Ben House was an early National League favourite of mine for his energy and tenacity and he did his best to make up for some lacklustre displays around him, even if he did little with the ball.

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Conclusions

When you’re pushing to win the title as soon as possible and you’ve just lost a football match, the goal for the next game is to win, however that comes.

In the 70 minutes leading up to the penalty, Blues had had 78.1% of the ball, 20 touches in the opposition area, created 1.17xG and had three big chances. George Wickens had been forced into two fine stops and Stansfield was denied by a superb last-ditch block.

Davies was correct when he said pre-match that Lincoln had scored more goals than any other side in League One since we played them in the FA Cup third round. At the point we won that penalty, they had had three shots, one from 25 yards that landed in Row Z and two others that never made it further than the six-yard box.

We were dominant here. Not an exciting, on the front foot, creating chance after chance after chance dominant. But a dominant in that we had the ball, we worked good positions and our opponents were largely getting nowhere near us, and that’s despite changing things up in possession. Krystian Bielik and Ben Davies attempted nine more passes than Lincoln City’s entire team combined.

I understand the feeling from Lincoln’s side of things that they defended brilliantly and maybe could have earned a point. But the numbers and flow of the game are enough to showcase that we fully deserved the victory and we earned the penalty because we had consistently entered their penalty area.

That’s now 18 matches at home this season, winning 15 and drawing three. Since Ryan Allsop’s debut post-Peterborough United, we have played 14 matches at home and conceded twice: Mitch Pinnock’s late equaliser for Northampton Town and Sam Nombe’s headed opener for Rotherham United. It’s some record.

It was great to have Allsop and Stansfield back in the starting XI while Keshi Anderson and Marc Leonard also returned to the squad. With Myeung-Jae Lee having played for the U21’s and Willum Willumson finally getting something of a rest, it feels like the squad has quickly returned to a place whereby Davies has genuine options and quality. Hopefully Laird can be managed back after the international break – assuming he is back by then – and we can get the title wrapped up before the EFL Trophy final.

It’s Stevenage next on Tuesday night. Incredibly, we haven’t played them in the league. And while the EFL Trophy game was competitive, it’s worth noting that they made five changes while we made eight from memory (I should probably double check that).

Do we change much? It’s hard to say. The assumption would be that we revert to normal with Willumson and Anderson taking the places of Bielik and Hansson. Gardner-Hickman moves to right-back. Paik starts deeper. Dowell from the right. I do wonder whether Bielik starts again to counter the set-piece threat that Stevenage possess. Decisions for Davies, I guess.

For now, we’re back at the top. We’re 11 clear. Up the Blues!

KRO.