Match Report: Shrewsbury Town 0-4 Birmingham City
A comfortable win for Birmingham City at Shrewsbury Town as Blues win in the EFL Trophy for the first time in almost 30 years.
Birmingham City found their touch in front of goal at Shrewsbury Town during an EFL Trophy group stage match.
Blues opened the scoring within ten minutes through Scott Wright, who made it two for the night after Tomoki Iwata scored his third of the month.
Shrewsbury had a goal disallowed before the break and were punished further in the second half when Emil Hansson made it four.
Blues were without ten players for this one owing to injury and international duty so Davies made five changes, four of which were enforced.
Dion Sanderson returned to the XI after two months out, Ayuma Yokoyama made his second start for the club while Ben Davies, Marc Leonard and Scott Wright stepped into the XI. Brad Mayo, Josh Williams, Brandon Khela, Zaid Betteka and Lukas Jutkiewicz all returned to the squad.
Yokoyama was keen to make an impression and tested Toby Savin twice in the first ten minutes. The second effort was parried back to Gardner-Hickman whose cross was turned home by Wright after Keshi Anderson hit the woodwork.
Shrewsbury showed some tidy footwork to spring out of the press to the right where neither Tom Bloxham or Carl Winchester could beat Ryan Allsop. Gardner-Hickman volleyed Alex Cochrane's cross wide before Leo Castledine’s header was almost turned in by John Marquis, who was denied on the line by Sanderson.
Having performed at one end, Sanderson made a telling contribution at the other, threading a fine through ball for Wright whose cut back was finished first time by Iwata.
The third arrived soon after and it was a beauty. Morgan Feeney was loose and Wright pounced. He played a quick 1-2 with Alfie May before finding Keshi Anderson in the box. The winger backheeled into the path of Wright to finish first time. Six touches. Four passes. A third goal.
The hosts thought they had one back through Castledine. Bloxham controlled and found the loanee who cut back and fired into the corner. The goal was disallowed, however, as Marquis was stood right in front of Allsop.
There were chances at both ends in the second half. Yokoyama was again denied by Savin before Castledine found Charles Sagoe Jr, who couldn’t beat Allsop.
Tempers flared with twenty to go. Having been frustrated at winning the ball off and immediately losing it to Wright, Taylor Perry took an unnecessary swipe at the Scotsman. Davies stormed into make his feelings known which brought the giant Toto Nsiala into play.
The tension simmered and Blues scored almost immediately. Perry was dispossessed again, this time by Anderson, who found Brandon Khela. The youngster hit the post but the ball landed kindly for fellow substitute Emil Hansson to tap into an empty net.
Not much happened after. Mal Benning twice found the target from distance but didn’t really test Allsop. Jutkiewicz did similar. Hansson, twice, and Gardner-Hickman were off target.
Blues' biggest win in all competitions since the win over Luton Town in August 2021.
Lineups
Shrewsbury: Savin; Winchester Nsiala Feeney Nurse (Benning 46); Gilliead Perry; Bloxham Castledine Sagoe Jr; Marquis (O'Reilly 46) Unused: Young; Feeney Rossiter Ojo Lloyd.
Blues: Allsop; TGH Sanderson (Klarer 70) Davies Cochrane (Williams 83); Leonard Iwata (Khela 46); Wright Anderson Yokoyama (Hansson 70); May (Jutkiewicz 77). Unused: Mayo; Betteka.
Tactics
Neither side played with the intensity of a league game here, so tactical blueprints were only played loosely.
Shrewsbury were pretty simple out of possession. It was a 4-2-3-1, played very narrow with the approach being to force Blues wide. It was about getting the distances right with the two defensive midfielders sat on the toes of the centre-backs.
They had a couple of issues. The first was that they didn’t get close enough to Blues. It was easy for Blues to find a route out because somebody wasn’t switched on or communicating to ensure no time on the ball was given.
The switch was always on when required given the narrow approach, so the back three could regularly get Gardner-Hickman and Yokoyama involved.
Another issue was that when Blues inevitably got in down the right, as happened for the first two goals, the defence were outnumbered in the box. Nurse was out of the game, Feeney went to the front post and with May, Anderson and Yokoyama in the area, there was usually a man free.
In possession, Shrewsbury did have bright moments and it usually came from the same approach. They were quick in possession down the left and would work it to Sagoe Jr. He would get half a yard of space and switch the ball out to Bloxham on the other flank.
The space was available because Cochrane was covering the space and Yokoyama was going narrow for the press. The execution of the pass was excellent. The failing for Blues was letting Shrewsbury out in the first place.
Players
A weird night to judge players so I’ll keep it shorter than usual.
Scott Wright. Two goals and an assist. Nice going. Ayuma Yokoyama showed what he can do, which is important while he works on improving other areas. Dion Sanderson had one moment of panic but otherwise performed quite well.
For Shrewsbury, the attacking midfielders looked alright. Bloxham is big and pacy. Castledine talented. Sagoe Jr key to them getting out most of the time, which isn’t easy to do against us.
Conclusions
How many conclusions can you draw from what was essentially a friendly match under a competitive competition title?
It was good to get back to winning ways against a fellow League One side and to start well and score the goals we did made it a lovely night for the travelling faithful.
Neither side reached their peak during the game as far as intensity was concerned. Gaps appeared. Neither side had to work too hard to move the ball. It’s the nature of the competition. Our quality and extra physicality showed on the night and it showed what we can do if a team doesn’t turn up against us.
The EFL Trophy boycott debate has been the most controversial thing from the night.
Social media can provide a lot of noise so I raised it in the NTT20 Squad to see what fans of other clubs thought.
I put our side forward. Many not knowing about the boycott. The belief that we’re doing a good thing by turning up and putting money in the tills. Needing the tickets for away allocation purposes. Believing we might be successful and therefore wanting to attend. Cheaper tickets. Game on our doorstep.
The response was fairly positive. An understanding of why people attend. That's good enough for me.
Debate rages on about the competition itself. The group stage, weird penalty shoot out for a draw and the rule about fining clubs for not keeping a certain number of players in their squad doesn’t help the draw of the competition. There are pros and cons to the U21 clubs being included and it probably depends which side of the boardroom you are sitting on.
I guess we’ll find out more about playing an U21 side in a competitive game next time out. I’m expecting it to be even weirder than the games we’ve played against Shrewsbury and Walsall. Once it reaches the knockouts and each game counts for something, we’ll probably get more out of it competitively.
In terms of us, it's a week and a half off now. We will be without Bielik for the next month which is a blow. Given the length of time he, Laird and Harris are missing with ankle knocks, I'm a bit concerned at Iwata also going off with his ankle. We’ll see.
It's the other pre-season promotion favourites Bolton Wanderers at home sandwiched between trips to Lincoln City and Mansfield Town, the sides currently 4th and 3rd in the division.
I’m planning on writing something larger over the next week. Not entirely sure what shape that will take but keep an eye out.