Steve Evans’ comments prior to our trip to Rotherham earlier in the season did the rounds around social media, as he referred to Blues as “Real Birmingham” and called us the Galacticos. He wasn’t quite so extreme in his praise this time, and his much improved Rotherham side provided a good test for Blues.
Thankfully, Iwata’s midweek injury wasn’t as bad as first feared and he kept his place in the starting lineup. Chris Davies made one change, resting Leonard in favour of new signing Kieran Dowell. The team was as follows: Allsop, Laird, Klarer, Davies, Cochrane, Iwata, Gardner-Hickman, Dowell, Dykes, Anderson and Stansfield.
We’ve often been involved in cagey affairs this year, particularly at home, where we suffocate the opposition as they attempt to play a low block and keep Blues from scoring without posing much of an attacking threat themselves. Rotherham however played the first half on the front foot, and it made for quite an open game. Blues found more space in the final third than we might be used to, and got ourselves in good attacking positions with frequency whilst Rotherham looked to press us high and hit us on the counter – which they did with more effectiveness than most of our league opponents this year.
Dowell tested the keeper a couple of times early on from set pieces and open play, the new man showed good quality with his deliveries and vision as he took up Willumsson’s usual role on the right hand side of the attack, sitting more narrow to allow Laird to go around the outside.
Our biggest chance of the first half however came through Keshi Anderson. He’s a man in form and looked dangerous every time he got on the ball, this time he beat his man and cut back to Stansfield in the box, who turned and got his shot off. The deflection made it difficult for the keeper, but he reacted well and kept it out. Laird picked up the rebound and, on the second attempt, lifted the ball back into the danger area for Dykes, who’s shot went narrowly wide.
But Rotherham looked sharp on the counter, and after a cross into the box was delivered by Joe Powell, it took Ben Davies coming to the rescue to deny Andre Green from scoring a free header just inside the six yard box, as he cleared the ball off the line.
Moments before half-time, Rotherham struck again. Their initial corner was ordered to be retaken due to scuffling in the box, and they changed it up and went short. Early sub and new Miller man Dan Gore received the ball and played a wicked cross which found Sam Nombe, who headed home with power. Blues uncharacteristically switched off at the back and were immediately punished.
We’d by no means played a poor first half, but you’d have to say the better chances fell the way of the visitors, and you could argue they were deservedly in the lead going into the break.
Half time: Blues 0-1 Rotherham
The second half was a different story. Blues pinned Rotherham back and denied them any further clear cut chances for the rest of the match, and created plenty more ourselves. 10 minutes into the half, Iwata cut out a Rotherham counter and found Laird with a first time pass. He couldn’t find his way past his man, but laid the ball back to Dowell out wide who lifted a cross to the far post. Dykes got his head on it and the ball dropped in the six yard box. Stansfield was the quickest to react, and dinked his shot around the keeper and into the far side of the net to bring us back level.
Minutes later, Anderson picked the ball up after a Blues free kick was headed away and delivered back into the box with quality. His cross found Laird, who could only head narrowly wide.
Keshi again looked bright and took his man on down the left, got into the box and was tugged over by his shoulder – but the referee waved play on to the bemusement of the players and crowd.
The Blues pressure was relentless, as wave after wave of attack came. We were excellent in cutting out counters and didn’t allow Rotherham to get themselves out. It felt inevitable we’d get a winner from somewhere, and it came on the 80th minute. Gardner-Hickman’s energy was fantastic throughout the game, he played a one-two with substitute Marc Leonard and darted into the box. His touch was loose, which invited Odoffin to try and challenge, but his challenge was late and TGH got there first. The ref pointed to the spot immediately.
Stansfield stepped up and dispatched his penalty with quality into the left hand corner of the goal to bag his brace. That’ll do wonders for his confidence, as he appears to have been struggling a bit of late.
Davies made a few late subs with the aim of seeing the game out as Hanley and Bielik replaced Stansfield and Iwata, and we switched to a 5 at the back. It worked – and we kept our energy high when out of possession to grab the 3 points.
With Wycombe drawing to Cambridge and Huddersfield losing to Northampton, this became a big 3 points. At half time we were back in 2nd, yet we ended the game 4 points clear of Wycombe, still with 2 games in hand. We could really pull away from the pack in February with so many home games, and results like today’s will go a long way towards that. We showed great character to come back from behind, as we did so often at the start of the season.
Up next we travel to Stevenage on Tuesday in the quarter finals of the Vertu Trophy, before welcoming Premier League Newcastle to St Andrews for the FA Cup on Saturday. A big week of cup football coming up – can we progress further in either cup? Davies might have a job in stopping the players looking past Stevenage for the FA Cup fixture a few days later. We’ll have no choice if we want to progress in the Vertu Trophy, as Stevenage have found good form of late and could cause us plenty of problems away from home.
We Keep Right On.