Match Report: Blues 3-2 Peterbrough United
Blues now lead League One after a sixth consecutive win, but needed to come from 2-0 down to make it happen.
Birmingham City made it six league wins in a row for the first time in 39 years thanks to a comeback victory against Peterborough United.
St.Andrews was sold out for the fourth time this season but the early running went the way of the visitors who led through Ricky-Jade Jones and made it two via Emmanuel Fernandez.
Fortunately, Willum Thor Willumson was on hand to get one back before an Oscar Wallin own goal and Krystian Bielik header secured a deserved victory.
Davies made just one change from the side that beat Rotherham United last weekend with Krystian Bielik regaining the captain’s armband and his place at the heart of the defence. Ben Davies dropped to the bench with Ayuma Yokoyama exiting the 18.
It was a familiar pattern early doors with Blues under pressure from buoyant opposition. Ricky-Jade Jones flicked a cross wide of the post in the first minute and opened the scoring a couple of minutes later when he tackled Bailey Peacock-Farrell, who was once again far too casual in possession.
Blues fans immediately responded with a rendition of Keep Right On but the players would take a little longer to find their tune. Jones beat the offside trap and ran away from Bielik, forcing a stop from Peacock-Farrell. The resulting corner was played into the near post where Emmanuel Fernandez, who had won his battle with marker Willumson, was free to power home.
Blues were beginning to settle in possession just before the goal and restarted where they had left off. Paik Seung-Ho sent Emil Hansson racing in behind to find Lyndon Dykes whose header beat Jed Steer but not Jack Sparkes. Hansson was in behind again after linking up with Stansfield, his cross this time finding Willumson at the near post to volley past Steer.
Willumson almost had another positive impact with a ball flashed across goal, a minute after Peterborough had received a booking for time wasting. Despite dominating the ball, chances were few and far between. Kwame Poku had Peterborough’s final effort of the game – an effort blazed over from distance – while Paik nor Dykes could make the most of a bouncing ball in the area.
Davies made a double substitution at half-time and it paid off almost immediately. Keshi Anderson drove forward and with the Posh defence and midfield all behind the penalty spot to protect their goal, Stansfield had space to receive his pass, turn and fire home via the back of Oscar Wallin.
Scott Wright was the other half-time sub and he had impactful few minutes, first finding Paik, who curled wide, before a driving run led to Stansfield coming close. He almost scored himself, a low strike deflected just wide after good work from Anderson and Stansfield. And after Stansfield’s teasing cross wasn’t read by his team-mates, the ex-Rangers man saw another low strike deflect wide.
Paik took the resulting corner and played short to Tomoki Iwata. His delivery to the back post allowed Bielik to attack the ball above Hector Kyprianou, forcing the ball into the net. Blues led.
And that was pretty much that. Posh couldn’t muster another effort at the Blues goal, their best attempt to do so being a couple of set-pieces that were comfortably dealt with. Blues didn’t offer much of a goal threat until the final moments, Keshi Anderson striking a loose ball against a Posh defender while Steer was forced to react smartly to Willumson’s deflected strike.
We made hard work of it, but Blues win again and now top the division.
Lineups
Blues: BPF; TGH (Sampsted 79) Klarer Bielik Cochrane; Paik (Leonard 88) Iwata; Willumson Stansfield (May 79) Hansson (Wright 46); Dykes (Anderson 46). Unused: Allsop; Davies.
Posh: Steer; Katongo (Dornelly 50) Fernandez Wallin Sparkes (Curtis 74); Collins Kyprianou; Poku O'Brien-Brady (Ajiboye 79) Mothersille; Jones (Odoh 79). Unused: Bilokapic; Nevett Hayes.
Tactics
Blues continued as normal. A 4-2-3-1 that becomes a 3-2-4-1, Gardner-Hickman getting high down the right, Willumson joining Stansfield in the centre off Dykes with Hansson hugging the touchline. In possession, one of Paik, Iwata, Cochrane or Klarer get forward and join the attack.
Peterborough changed from their 3-4-1-2 shape to go 4-2-3-1 here. O’Brien-Brady entered the XI, playing in behind Jones with Mothersille wide left and Poku on the right.
Out of possession, the aim was to cut off passing lanes and close the ball down. Mothersille was quick to Klarer, Poku to Cochrane, while Jones and O’Brien-Brady would block Paik and Iwata. When Blues played to Bielik or Peacock-Farrell, Jones stepped up with one of Collins or Kyprianou then tasked with closing down the midfield.
However, doing so had a tendency to leave the back four and defensive midfielder 5v5, which allowed Blues to be direct and hit one of the three sizeable figures at the other end of the pitch. Some hesitancy followed the second goal and that allowed Bielik more of the ball, as well as the two in midfield.
As that hesitancy grew, Bielik saw more of the ball and with Sparkes covering inside to support the centre-backs and keep a watchful eye on Willumson, the switch to Gardner-Hickman became a regular way of getting Blues into the final third. And when that was cut off, the space grew inside to play how we wanted to play.
In possession, Posh did try and play. In the first half, much of that play was an intent to draw Blues’ press on and look for the pass in behind. Often, this was Sparkes, arguably their best passer, looking to find Mothersille or Jones in behind Klarer. They did look to play their way out of trouble and managed to do so on a couple of occasions early doors.
Their most pronounced spell of possession came towards the start of the second after Blues’ equaliser. While it didn’t lead to much, Blues firmly in charge of proceedings, the diamond shape defensively helped them escape defensive territory more than once with Kyprianou stepping into the right side of the defence to form a three with Collins just ahead. Dornelly and Mothersille would tend to collect possession from wide positions but they struggled to advance further than that.
For Blues, the front five in attack tended to become the front five when pressing. Stansfield and Willumson would join Dykes in closing down the centre-backs and holding midfielders along with one of Paik or Iwata. Hansson would keep an eye on Katongo with Gardner-Hickman stepping onto Sparkes. That left Klarer, Bielik and Cochrane against the front three with support from one in front. Gardner-Hickman and Paik/Iwata would close slightly after, giving themselves the ability to be in position if the forward pass was made early. This often allowed Sparkes to be the freer player but also ensured nobody could join the attack quicker than Gardner-Hickman.
Blues switched around at half-time with the double substitution. Stansfield became the main focal point with Dykes having gone off with Willumson now towards the left rather than right. Wright had the free role coming in off the right with Anderson the touchline hogger down the left.
Players
Starting from the back, we may need to talk again about Peacock-Farrell. That’s a mistake vs Leyton Orient. A mistake vs Wigan Athletic. Should have done better for the Wrexham opener. A solid game vs Rotherham United. Another error here. The concern is that fans are getting nervous and you can hear the tension around the ground when we play back. That doesn’t help anybody. There are growing calls for change and I wonder if Allsop gets his chance soon.
Klarer looks flustered early doors but was dominant thereafter. Bielik was Bielik. Just class. Cochrane didn’t get to show off his passing range but did his job effectively. Paik and Iwata are just quality.
Willumson is really growing into life as a Blues player. Stansfield ran his socks off and had a couple of decent moments, without being a show stealer, and slowly got the better of his duel with Wallin. Dykes was fairly quiet. Hansson had probably his best half in a Blues shirt and it was a surprise to see him withdrawn. Anderson had a similar impact. Wright had possibly his best half in a Blues shirt off the bench as a livewire.
For Posh, Jones certainly has the tools. He’s quick, strong, not afraid to do the dirty work and he showed with his chance before the second that he can keep the ball under control at speed. But he was very quiet after the second. I thought Mothersille was bright. Fernandez showed himself to be a big, strong boy and uses his frame well. Despite a couple of tough moments against Stansfield, I can see why they plumped for Wallin in the summer. Tidy.
Conclusions
It’s a surreal feeling being 2-0 down and almost knowing that you’re going to come back.
We’re still in the early days, but it feels like this group are made of stern stuff and have the quality to back it up. Even when the second went in, I’m sat thinking “wow, what is going on?” while also watching us pop the ball about comfortably and knowing within a minute that we’re okay. Dykes almost scores. Thor does. Right, we aren’t losing this.
I don’t feel panicked when a player goes down. We lose Laird and Gardner-Hickman comes in, performing excellently. Stansfield goes down and I’m looking at May, Anderson and Wright on the bench. Yokoyama, Khela and Jutkiewicz aren’t involved and we’ve still got Harris, Sanderson, Laird and Buchanan to return.
The statistics from today are mind-blowing, however. A show of just how far we have come in a short amount of time.
We haven’t gone unbeaten in 7 league matches since before COVID
We haven’t started a season 7 unbeaten since 1991-92 when we won promotion from the third tier under Terry Cooper
We haven’t come from two goals down to win since beating Blyth Spartans in the FA Cup in 2015
We haven’t come from two goals down to win in the league since 1991
It’s been 39 years since we won 6 league matches in a row
The primary issue is these early starts. We may have the quality to avoid it being a problem this season, but a pattern of being on the back foot for the first 10-15 minutes of every game isn’t one you want to endure. It catches up with you eventually.
It’s Huddersfield Town on Tuesday. To my untrained eye, they’re the side perhaps best equipped to match us physically and in terms of concentration levels etc. but they’re having a rough time of things at present, losing six of their last seven in all competitions.
It leaves me in two minds.
We should expect victory against a side seemingly finding their feet under new management and struggling for form.
Are they about to come together and produce the performance that proves they’re ready for the challenge?
An interesting note is that we won’t have Chris Davies on the touchline. He’s serving a one-match suspension having accumulated three bookings this season. I appreciate it may be in the rule book, so no blame to the officials, but retrieving the ball for his team out of the opposition dugout when they had no intention to grab it in order to get the game going felt a bit harsh. It did make me laugh that Darren Ferguson received a booking of his own for leaving the technical area to get the ball later on.
Davies claims it’s his frustration with time wasting that has ruled him up. I get it. Blues will be dominant and teams will want to slow the game down. As our manager, I’d like to think Davies will lead the fight against it. And we know officials aren’t always up to speed when it comes to cracking down on it. At the same time, I’d rather our manager be in the dugout, so hopefully he finds a happy medium of making his point without the expense of cards.
It’s the first time we’ll have a three game week in the league, so it will be interesting to see if changes are made. Alfie May, Scott Wright and Keshi Anderson must be hoping for an opportunity.
Ta
Ryan - update the headline score! Btw keep writing your stuff, it's great.