Match Report: Stockport County 1-1 Blues

Alfie May's opener was cancelled out by Macaulay Southam-Hales second half header as Blues earn a point on the road.

Birmingham City stretched their unbeaten run to ten in all competitions despite a second-half onslaught from Stockport County.

Blues took the lead early doors when Alfie May curled beyond Ben Hinchliffe but succumbed in the second half when Macaulay Southam-Hales powered home a header with just over ten to play.

Chris Davies has tried to manage his squad during this period and made three changes here. Alex Cochrane and Taylor Gardner-Hickman returned for the stricken pair of Lee Buchanan and Emil Hansson while Ben Davies slotted in ahead of Ethan Laird in defence. Christoph Klarer was fit enough to start after being withdrawn against Blackpool with a hip issue while Krystian Bielik, Tomoki Iwata and Willum Willumson started their fourth game in under nine days. There were places for Scott Wright and Lukas Jutkiewicz on the Blues bench.

Blues took the lead on five minutes. A lovely bit of play dragged Stockport out of position and created a huge gap for Gardner-Hickman to exploit. Willumson played the pass but the midfielder-turned-full-back-turned-winger took too long and allowed Hinchliffe to snuff out the danger. Fortunately, Jay Stansfield and Iwata were quick to close down any attempts to play out, allowing May to receive the ball, step inside and curl into the far corner.

The hosts were quick to respond when Southam-Hales crossed for ex-Blue Odin Bailey. And virtually nothing happened for the next half hour. There were a couple of teasing crosses, a change in a personnel and some good spirited battling from both sides but the next attempt would come on 38 minutes when Bailey smashed over after a short corner routine.

Blues came close to making it two. Ethan Pye slipped, presenting Willumson with oodles of space to run into before slipping in May whose effort was stopped low down by Hinchliffe.

The half ended with an unsavoury incident, Kyle Wootton purposely shoving Bielik into Ryan Allsop, a clash of heads leaving the former with a shiner under his eye and the latter needing a bandage round his head.

Stockport were sharper in the second half as Blues’ energy sapped. Jack Diamond was left ruing two opportunities, the first a header he couldn’t connect cleanly with and the second an effort sliced wide after good work from Wootton. Blues did have a decent chance of their own, Willumson escaping down the left and crossing for May but he was always on the stretch and skied his volley high and wide.

A smart set-piece routine almost gave Stockport their equaliser. The ball was pulled the edge of the box where Will Collar’s strike bounces towards goal and was cleared. Callum Connolly then had an effort from close range that cannoned off a Blues defender.

Blues could and probably should have scored a second. Paik did excellently to wrestle back the ball in midfield and Lyndon Dykes found a clever pass for Stansfield. With Wright wide open to his right, Stansfield opted to shoot and saw his effort blocked.

We would be punished for it. Ryan Rydel’s delivery wasn’t cut out and Southam-Hales made a full speed charge towards the six-yard box, thumping a header past Allsop for the equaliser.

The wing-back came mightily close to adding a second a few minutes later. Iwata was struggling and was picked off in midfield. Collar made the most of it and played in the wing-back who rattled the ball against the inside of the post.

Bielik headed over a corner before almost costing Blues the solitary point they were fighting for, blindly playing back to Allsop only for Wootton to read the pass. He showed composure to cut back inside of Allsop and shoot only for Klarer to make a big intervention. Collar then headed on target from the resulting set-piece.

A brutal afternoon but Blues remain unbeaten.

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Lineups

Stockport: Hinchliffe; Mingi (Knoyle 34) Connolly Pye; Southam-Hales Collar Norwood (Camps 46) Bailey (Fiorini 87) Touray (Rydel 71); Wootton Diamond (Stretton 71). Unused: Addai; Hughes.

Blues: Allsop; Bielik Klarer Davies Cochrane (Laird 87); Iwata Paik; Gardner-Hickman (Wright 66) Willumson (Leonard 66) Stansfield (Harris 87); May (Dykes 66). Unused: Peacock-Farrell; Jutkiewicz.

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Tactics

Blues employed their usual 4-2-3-1, reverting back to having a RW and LB holding the width after utilising a mirrored version for the game against Blackpool due to availability.

Stockport used something of a 3-4-3 / 3-5-2 shape. Norwood was at the base with Collar to his right, slightly more advanced in a battle with Paik while Bailey picked up a half-left role designed to go up against Bielik and drag him out. Diamond was then more of a striker, occupying Davies leaving Wootton with Klarer for the most part.

Blues played against it brilliantly early doors, moving the ball quickly and dragging players out of position. Key to this was Willumson and May who were being watched by Pye and Connolly. This shows in the clip of the first goal where you can see the huge space left in the centre with Pye (15) closing Willumson and Connolly now tracking May having been turned.

And this happened on various occasions early doors with Blues not quite able to exploit the gaps presented.

Why didn’t it continue? Because Stockport got wiser in their press and Blues began to suffer physically. Stockport made changes that enhanced the energy they played width and the crowd got right behind them. Blues were feeling the wrath of the schedule and the players in deeper positions so important to making our style work were unable to work the ball as sharply. The quality going forward suffered and even when the quality did come, those in forward areas weren’t making the most of it.

In terms of with the ball, Stockport wanted to get on the front foot. Diamond and Wootton were up against Klarer and Davies which meant Bailey and Collar could pick up half positions floating either side, opening space for the forward pass into Wootton or allowing them to build out wide where the wing-backs were aggressive. Deliveries into the box were a regular feature.

The style meant Blues had to work. In particular Gardner-Hickman. With Williumson not in great shape, he was tasked with sitting on Norwood, who wasn’t making too many movements, with Gardner-Hickman joining May and Stansfield in closing down the Stockport backline. Gardner-Hickman was then tasked with dropping in on Touray with Bailey trying to push high onto Bielik leaving Iwata often as a spare man to come across.

Stockport increased the tempo of their play in the second half, going more direct in their play to “put it on” Blues physically. Blues didn’t shy away from the battle, but there was no denying that one side looked more physically prepared for the battle than the other. From Blues’ perspective, allowing deliveries from wide areas was better than letting Stockport run through the centre of the pitch. However, that did lead to the winner.

Looking at the goal, the issue has already arisen before the delivery comes in. The image below is Ethan Pye (LCB) passing the ball to Ryan Rydel (LWB, out of shot). On the far side of the box, you can already see Macaulay Southam-Hales (RWB) with his arms raised – he can see the space.

What can Blues do better? I haven’t seen the full move back to know how we could have avoided getting ourselves into the position we find ourselves in the image above. However, in terms of reacting to the position we find ourselves:

1: Wright has to show more intensity to stop the cross. Rydel is a deliverer, not a runner. Stop him crossing it.

2: More awareness and communication in defending the box. Klarer and Davies are already marking. Cochrane is essentially 2v1 at the back post. Can Cochrane task Paik with marking Collar so he can concentrate on Southam-Hales? Small details.

The truth is, the damage was done before the cross came into the area.

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Players

I don’t want to go down the route of beating players up. They know they can perform better and equally, I think many are suffering at the moment.

I do think Allsop, Klarer and Davies deserve credit. The rest of the side weren’t at it but they kept the back door shut for much of the game and reacted well when required.

Bielik did okay. Willumson had a couple of moments but looked physically up against it. Iwata had his sloppiest display in a Blues shirt. If all three get rested for Wigan, I’d be comfortable with it.

Stansfield couldn’t make the most of his opportunities. May was bright but found himself struggling when the ball started moving slower into him. Paik was quiet but also did little wrong. Gardner-Hickman deserves credit for an energetic display in an unfamiliar position.

I think the entire Stockport team deserve credit. Knoyle and Camps had a positive impact from the bench. Wootton was a real nuisance. Southam-Hales had a strong game down the right. The best team we’ve played this season.

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Conclusions

For the first time in a while, I’ve found myself responding to folk on Twitter, something I’ve tended to avoid.

As I noted yesterday, I understand some of the frustration. This hasn’t been the best week performance wise and seeing us suffer against Blackpool for an hour and most of yesterday against Stockport was rough. We haven’t shown that real ruthless streak in terms of putting 4 or 5 past somebody. Expectation is extremely high.

There’s a whole other side to this I want to explore and I’m not sure this is the best place for it. I’ve already begun writing something and I’ll finish it up and share it next week.

What I do think is that people just need to calm down a little bit. We’re averaging more points than any side in the top six tiers outside of Liverpool. The only reason we aren’t leading the table like Walsall, who have a similar number of points and are miles clear, is because other sides in our league are performing to a seriously good level.

That’s not our fault. That’s not the fault of Davies or the players. That’s on the clubs performing to that standard. Credit to them. Wycombe Wanderers, Wrexham and Huddersfield Town deserve enormous credit for the effort they’re putting in and the results they are achieving.

We just need to focus on us. And we are doing a fantastic job. I think we have the best team in the league, our points-per-game record is the best in the division, we have the best defence, one of the best attacks, a manager showcasing an adaptability and we’ve got all this while everybody is learning on the job. We’ve undergone huge change and are getting results while it happens. I don’t really care about the money side of things – it's very easy to fuck it up as we know.

I’m also positive about the window. I think we will add 3 or 4 players to give this group a boost. The situation with our wingers and attacking midfielders has been problematic. It appears Phil Neumann is on the way. We may look to find proper left-back cover for Alex Cochrane.

I do worry that we might be forced into exploring new options quicker than we may have wanted. I’d like to think the recruitment team were prepared for any hiccups but you can never be too sure. Hopefully we add the right quality and characters into the building rather than panic-buying, as we’ve been prone to in the past.

It’s Wigan on Saturday. The fifth game in just shy of 12 days. I just laughed when I saw their game was postponed on New Year’s Day.

I can’t lie. I can’t wait for it to be over. Like Stockport, just get in, get a result and get out of there. I don't care how it looks. We do have the FA Cup in between, but it will then be two weeks without league action and a chance for bodies and minds to recover. We have a lot of people not used to the relentless schedule and it’s showing.

What does the team look like for that game? I honestly don’t know. Ideally, I’d say rest Bielik, Iwata and Willumson. But how fit is Cochrane, who had to be withdrawn at Stockport? I doubt Wright is ready to start so Gardner-Hickman probably plays wide again.

Just get in, get a result and get out.

Happy New Year everybody. I’m now going to enjoy the rest of my birthday... and maybe try and avoid responding on Twitter!