We noted in our last report on Birmingham City that they would be playing Swansea City away but failed to also mention that they would be playing Sheffield Wednesday in midweek. 6 potential road points were up for grabs.
The Blues ended up with 4 points, but had to work fairly hard to get them. The 1-1 draw with the Swans was a come-from-behind effort that saw the home side go up after 21 minutes, staying that way until Patrick Roberts got the equalizer in the 72nd minute. Birmingham had just 2 shots on target all game and were generally outplayed. It didn’t help that Jay Stansfield was ruled out with a minor injury.
That injury was overcome by Tuesday and he started against last-place Sheffield Wednesday (who have -7 points, thanks to 2 points deductions totaling 18 points. Even without that they would have just 11 points and 1 win all season and would be 13 points adrift at the bottom of the table). What should have been an easy win turned out to be more of a struggle than expected. That was largely thanks to Wednesday backup goalie Murphy Cooper who made 6 saves in the game. Wednesday also came close to taking the lead at one point but hit the post. They had only 1 shot on target in the game though. And yet the Blues did not get the breakthrough until 83 minutes in when Marvin Ducksch pounced on a ricocheting ball to score. To secure the win Kyogo Furuhashi got his first league goal of the season intercepting a poor pass to the keeper and slotting the ball in from a nearly impossible angle.
That was only the 3rd road win of the season for City, who have struggled away from St. Andrew’s. The 4 points from the week edged the team up to 13th in the Championship on 38 points, 6 points out of the playoff spots.
They return home this week with just one game on the schedule. They play Stoke City tomorrow (9:00am, Paramount+). Stoke are 9th and 3 points above the Blues. Stoke has a hefty +8 goal difference, far better than Birmingham’s +1, so barring a massive blowout a home win would not see the two teams flip. There is not much in the way of injury news from either team. Stoke won the opposite fixture 1-0 early in the season so this one will likely be close too.
Off the field the Blues have just today reached a deal to send midfielder Marc Leonard on loan to Hearts of the Scottish Premiership. That followed on the team securing Colombian mid Jhon Solis for the remainder of this season on a loan deal with Girona of La Liga. The expected deal for forward August Priske was also completed this past week. He joins the team on an unusually long 5.5 year deal. The fee was not disclosed but is thought by most to be a team record. Also joining the team this week is Ghanaian winger Ibrahim Osman on a loan from Brighton & Hove Albion. Both the last 2 are 21 years old and are expected to make their Birmingham debuts this weekend.
