Former Birmingham City manager Garry Monk could only watch on impressed as his former side dismantled his current team, Cambridge.

Monk admitted his team were outplayed, although he contended that the first penalty was wrongly awarded. "The first penalty clearly shouldn’t have been given – I’ve seen it back to confirm it," declared Monk.

"That didn’t lose us the game but 20-odd minutes in, it changes the possibility of what the game could look like."

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He conceded his side's performance was subpar, noting, "We’re not happy with our performance and we didn’t do ourselves justice. We knew the size of the challenge – Birmingham are the outliers of the division with the quality they have and Chris has done a fantastic job."

He reflected on the need for his team to hit their known levels, which they failed to reach in the first half.

Birmingham boss Davies praised what he deemed as one of his squad's "finest outings" following a resounding 4-0 victory over Cambridge. The result solidifies their position at the summit of League One, now seven points clear with an extra match to play compared to their nearest rivals Wycombe and also prolongs their undefeated streak in the league to 14 fixtures.

The Bluenoses hadn't seen such a commanding league triumph at home since their 6-1 thrashing of Reading back in December 2014, marking a robust comeback from the heart-stopping 3-2 FA Cup defeat they suffered at the hands of Newcastle just this Saturday. "I still think there’s growth in the team and levels to go through and this was one of our best performances," Davies enthused.

"I felt we were due one of these results with the dominance and chances we’ve had in games."

He also addressed the team's resilience, saying, "The big question about this game was how we were going to come out after a lot of emotion and energy that went into the Newcastle game."

He complimented the players' approach: "I thought the players answered it with their mentality, attitude, energy and determination and it was all there from the first whistle."

Davies even tackled the issue of complacency head-on, asserting, "Complacency is always going to be a question that’s levelled at us and I thought we answered that and showed an appetite for it."

He added, "The record is pretty special and I thought there should have been some games where we should have been having that sort of margin."

Striker Jay Stansfield catapulted Birmingham into the lead with a penalty in the 23rd minute, marking his impressive tally to 19 goals in all contests this season.

It was 2-0 when Liam Bennett accidentally put the ball into his own net from Keshi Anderson's delivery on 39 minutes and Kieran Dowell quickly added a third, slotting home after Anderson let Stansfield's pass run. Stansfield won another penalty after being fouled by Ben Stevenson in the 57th minute, but Nathan Bishop was up to the task and saved his shot.

Substitute Luke Harris struck the fourth goal from distance following a deflection off ex-City player Michael Morrison from Scott Wright’s delivery. .