Birmingham City inflicted another blow on a promotion rival last night to pull clear in the race for an automatic return to the Championship.

Keshi Anderson scored the only goal of the game as Blues bested Huddersfield 1-0 for the second time this season. And what a goal to win it, with Anderson lighting up a game devoid of clear-cut chances by belting home a volley from 20 yards.

Wycombe secured three points courtesy of a late comeback against Barnsley to keep pace with Blues, but Wrexham lost their unbeaten home record to Stevenage to fall eight points behind in the race for automatic promotion. Blues have games in hand on Wrexham, too.

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Here are our talking points from the John Smith’s Stadium…

A leap towards promotion

Wycombe’s victory over Barnsley, sealed by a Richard Kone double, is irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. The objective for Blues is to win promotion and they are now well on their way to that.

Blues are eight points clear of Wrexham with two games-in-hand, both at St Andrew’s against Stevenage and Cambridge United. If the gap to third becomes 14 points then Blues are going to be extremely difficult to catch.

Keshi Anderson, take a bow

Anderson placed his match-winning strike in the top three goals of his career when he joined us pitchside for a post-match interview. The other two strikes must be worth a watch.

In 27 appearances this season, Anderson has scored six goals and racked up as many assists – a return which puts him ahead of everyone bar Jay Stansfield, Alfie May and Willum Willumsson for goal contributions.

Chris Davies raced to get Anderson back into his starting line-up and the winger repaid him. In fact, Blues are generally better with Anderson in the team and they were last season too.

Blues have won 16 of the 28 league games Anderson has started since he joined the club on a free transfer in 2023. Remarkably, including Blues’ miserable 2023/24 campaign, Blues have only lost four league games with Anderson in their line-up. Maybe he should have played more last season.

A tactic that paid dividends

Ryan Allsop and Ethan Laird proved to be Blues’ most effective attacking avenue at the John Smith’s Stadium. Twice in the first half Allsop picked out Laird’s run in behind Huddersfield's defence with the perfect pass. It was no surprise that the Allsop-Laird combination saw Blues gain entry to Huddersfield territory for Anderson’s winner.

“They were trying to press man to man and Ryan has got the vision and quality of execution to make those passes,” said Davies. “He needs runners in order for those passes to happen and we had speed on both sides with Keshi and Ethan and it’s very difficult to defend against. I thought Ryan was exceptional with some of the balls he was playing, he was a bit of a playmaker for us. It was an important part of our play.”

Blues never looked like conceding

The defensive unit Davies has assembled is exceptional. Allsop, his back four and their protector Iwata shut the door on Huddersfield to keep a 12th League One clean sheet of the season.

Christoph Klarer and Ben Davies dominated inside their box, Alex Cochrane tucked in effectively and Laird used his athleticism to impress going both ways.

Blues have the best defensive record in League One by five goals. Their success has been built on that solidity.