Birmingham City have transfer ‘no brainer’ as Chris Davies rounds Alfie May
Birmingham City recorded their 25th victory of the season against Exeter City thanks to Ethan Laird’s first goal for the club.
Laird converted an Alfie May cross just before half-time to settle a contest that Blues controlled from start to finish. Three points ensured Blues stayed top of League One after Wycombe Wanderers struck late to defeat Mansfield in their first game without manager Matt Bloomfield.
Blues extended their unbeaten run to 14 games across all competitions to set up crucial matches at Wrexham and Huddersfield Town. Here are our talking points post-Exeter…
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Finding a way… again
Blues have the winning habit now. For the 25th time this season, Chris Davies’ team had a victory to celebrate with their supporters.
There was never any danger of Blues not getting three points once Laird’s volley found the bottom corner in first half stoppage time. Blues didn’t allow Exeter a single attempt at goal to give Ryan Allsop the easiest 90 minutes of his football career.
To put this winning machine into context, Blues have now won more league games (17) than they have in any season since 2011/12 when Chris Hughton’s side recorded 20 victories in the Championship. We’re only 24 games through this 46-game marathon.
A word on TGH
Taylor Gardner-Hickman has surely played his way to a permanent Blues transfer by now. The 23-year-old has played in a variety of positions in his 25 appearances for Blues and demonstrated his quality in his favoured midfield role against Exeter.
Davies talked Gardner-Hickman up at his pre-match press conference and the Blues manager poured praise on him post-match too. “I thought Taylor (Gardner-Hickman) covered a lot of ground – I would be interested to see his physical numbers in the game today because he was everywhere,” said Davies.
It should be a case of when, not if, Blues take up their option to sign Gardner-Hickman from Bristol City. He hasn’t put a foot wrong up to now and every squad needs a reliable utility man. It's a no brainer.
Davies has made May more rounded
May has turned provider in Blues’ last two matches to assist Ayumu Yokoyama and Laird. The striker now has five assists to go with his 10 goals in 24 league appearances this term.
As well all know, May has plundered goals at this level before for Cheltenham and Charlton, but he has never managed five assists during a League One season. The 31-year-old has become a more rounded player on Davies’ watch.
Reacting to the aforementioned statistic, Davies said: “That surprises me a little bit because he’s very good at bringing people into play, he’s got a nice touch and good awareness. Although he’s a very good goalscorer, he’s not selfish in the way that he’ll lay someone else on for a goal. He’s got a lot of quality and when he does get the ball around the box he’s calm, he won’t rush things, he’ll get his head up and pick people out.”
Davies’ midfield conundrum
The Blues manager put a dampener on everyone’s Saturday evening by revealing Paik Seung-ho could still be ‘a week or two’ away from returning. That timeframe would rule Paik out at next week’s match at Wrexham and make him a major doubt for Huddersfield the following Tuesday.
Tomoki Iwata has a problem too, meaning Blues could be without their first choice midfield pairing for arguably their toughest games of the season. Third-placed Wrexham have an even better home record than Blues and Huddersfield are unbeaten in the 16 League One games they’ve played since losing at St Andrew’s on October 1.
Interestingly, Davies gave Blues captain Krystian Bielik a brief run-out in midfield on Saturday. Could that be an option? Given the mobility required to play in Davies’ midfield, you would presume Marc Leonard and Gardner-Hickman are favourites.
