Blues 6-2 Barnsley: Jukey's Swansong

Blues looked to wrestle 9 points out of 9 from our first three game week of the run in when welcoming mid table strugglers Barnsley to St Andrews.

After breezing past basement dwellers Shrewsbury and barely grinding out a 2-1 victory over relegation strugglers Bristol Rovers, Blues were back at home to take on an out of form Barnsley. The Reds were expected to compete in the top 6 at the start of the season, indeed there was a whole online debate pre-season about who had the better midfield out of Blues and Barnsley, but it’s not gone to plan for the Reds and they came to St. Andrews without a win since early March. They sit in no-man’s land in mid table.

This gave Marc Roberts his first (and potentially final) return to St. Andrews after leaving in the summer transfer window to return to his boyhood club. He gave an interview pre-match and did speak very kindly on Blues, so I’ll refrain from being too harsh on him. They’re managed by former Villa player Conor Hourihane following the sacking of Darrell Clarke earlier this month, and apparently they also have player who came through our academy that doesn’t seem to like us very much. I’m not sure if he played though, someone will have to let me know.

Chris Davies went with a near identical line-up, with the exception of Paik Seung-ho returning from injury to replace Marc Leonard. We lined up as follows: Allsop, Laird, Klarer, Davies, Cochrane, Paik, Iwata, Dowell, Willumsson, Anderson and Stansfield.

First half

The game got off to a controversial start. It took just three minutes for Ryan Allsop to play one of his trademark long balls over the defence to Keshi Anderson. He was clipped by de Gevigney, the Barnsley right centre back, and the referee deemed him to be the last man and sent him off. I personally didn’t think it was a red, but it was Marc Roberts who was arguably the real last man on the cover, so maybe he was right. Kieran Dowell took the resulting free-kick, his shot went narrowly wide and rippled the side-netting.

Barnsley responded to the setback really well, and for the rest of the first half, if you’d spent five extra minutes at the pub, you might not have known they were down to 10 and an entertaining game pursued.

Cochrane played a poor header back to Allsop who couldn’t keep it in, and the resultant corner was met awkwardly by a combination of Ben Davies and Marc Roberts and hit the base of the post before Allsop claimed control.

Both Blues and Barnsley had chances to take the lead. Keshi Anderson got on the end of a delightful cross from Kieran Dowell and should’ve took his chance, but hit his shot into the ground and wide. Laird won the ball inside the box with a huge leap, and attempted a scissor kick finish that went sailing over the bar. Barnsley then responded with a chance of their own, but Adam Phillips’ shot was well saved by Ryan Allsop at his near post. Marc Roberts even showed one of his long throws that we saw every week during his tenure here, his first went straight into Allsop’s gloves.

Barnsley’s very capable left back attempted a backpass to his goalkeeper than Stansfield latched upon, but in taking the ball round the keeper he ran into Marc Roberts who swiped the ball clear. Hindsight is 20/20, but with his finishing prowess he really should’ve just tried to rifle it into the roof of the net.

A mess at the back for Blues not long after let Stephen Humphrys (who had an excellent game for Barnsley) through one-on-one against Allsop, but the striker attempted an early chip that was poorly executed and Allsop got back to make the save.

Klarer played an excellent through ball to Anderson who darted left-to-right into the box, and beat the keeper to the ball before being taken out, winning us another penalty. If I hadn’t seen most of our penalty decisions this year, I would’ve thought the number that we get is outrageous, but teams really do need to just stop fouling us in the box. After deploying our usual decoy tactic, despite Dowell being on the field, Stansfield put the ball on the spot and finished well into the bottom left hand corner, beating the keeper who guessed the right way. Stansfield responded to the usual away chants mocking his price tag and shushed the travelling Reds for good measure as he dispatched his 18th league goal of the season.

Barnsley weren’t to be so easily beaten, not just yet anyway. They responded within a few minutes with the first Marc Roberts long throw to result in a goal at St. Andrews. His initial throw was flicked on by McCarthy and Keillor-Dunn beat Iwata at the backpost to nod home and equalise.

Davies then opted to withdraw Willum Willumsson for what we later found out to be a virus, bringing on Alfie May, switching Stansfield to the left, Dowell central and Anderson on the right.

The remainder of the half was sloppy from Blues. There were loose touches and passes galore and we couldn’t get our rhythm going again. Barnsley meanwhile understandable sat deep, but attempted to counter quickly and played some fantastic passing triangles to move up the pitch. After seven minutes of injury time, Blues went into half time level.

Half time: Blues 1-1 Barnsley (Stansfield)

If the first half was entertaining, it was nothing on the second.

Blues took the lead quickly from a corner. Kieran Dowell’s delivery was headed back across goal by Marc Roberts towards Ben Davies, who scored his second in as many home games, bundling the ball home from inside the six yard box. Great assist Marc!

10 minutes later we had our third. Ben Davies played a long diagonal to Stansfield, who let it run wide before laying it back nicely for Cochrane. He used the space well and delivered a peach of a cross, similar to Stansfield’s second against Wrexham back in September, except this time it was Alfie May on the end of it and his header nestled in the corner of the near post.

Four minutes later Barnsley responded again to cut our lead in half. Humphrys and Phillips combined to play the former into the box, and his cross-shot from a narrow angle beat Ryan Allsop, who really should’ve kept that one out.

Sampsted and Harris came on for Laird and Anderson, and the Fulham loanee got himself involved straight away. May was played in behind and tried to square it to the young Welshman, but two defenders blocked the passing lane and Alfie really should’ve opted to shoot instead.

Nevertheless, Harris got onto the scoresheet shortly after to restore our advantage. Klarer played a long ball forwards to May, who took an excellent touch on the half way line before combining with Dowell and eventually setting Harris through on goal. The 20 year old took his time and picked his spot, slotting coolly into the far corner.

Paik and Iwata worked it wide to Stansfield, who looked to add to his tally. He cut inside past his man, and although his first shot was blocked, his second was a wicked half volley that beat the keeper but couldn’t quite beat the post. It would’ve been an outstanding finish but unfortunately it hit the woodwork and bounced out of danger.

Another few minutes later we added our fifth. Stansfield won the ball well in midfield and Harris played Alfie May into a dangerous area. Running at the remaining two defenders, Kieran Dowell made an overlapping run before receiving the ball, chopping inside and dispatching well into the bottom right hand corner.

I didn’t think it could get any better after we scored five for the first time in the league this season, until the game sealed itself as one that will live for a long, long time in the memory of all those who attended. Dowell battled high up the pitch and seized upon the Barnsley midfielder’s slip to play through none other than the substitute, 36 year old club captain and modern day legend Lukas Jutkiewicz. His first low shot was well saved by the keeper, but he leaped over Marc Roberts to latch onto the rebound first and dink it over the keeper into the net. Such celebrations have never been seen before for a sixth goal in a game as Jukey scored his first league goal of the season. The whole squad, including Ryan Allsop and a rogue fan in full kit ran over to celebrate with the Juke. It’ll be up there with one of my favourite moments of the season. The recorded celebrations shared by the club post match were distributed widely on social media and have racked up 365k views on Twitter alone. I think I’m personally responsible for half of those.

Lukas’ goal concluded the rout, and we ran out huge winners. Wrexham and Wycombe both played earlier in the day, and the Chairboys lost 1-0 away to Reading, meaning a win on Tuesday away to Peterborough (or Wycombe dropping points away to Huddersfield) mathematically seals our promotion back to the Championship. Wrexham came out 3-0 victors in their game, so should we beat the Posh in the league, we could seal the title while we’re on our weekend pilgrimage to Wembley, if not the following week on Good Friday at home to Crawley. The 6-2 win puts us ahead of Wycombe for goals scored with 71, the most in the league, while our conceded goals sits at 28, the lowest in the league. 92 points is the highest total that any Birmingham City side has ever reached. Our 3 wins so far in the run-in also means that the previously discussed points records are still available for Blues to grab. 4 more wins from our remaining 7 league fixtures puts us on 104 points and sets a new League One record (Wolves managed 103), while 5 wins out of 7 will put us on 107 and set a new EFL record, beating Reading’s 106 set in the Championship. This would also match the EFL’s record number of wins, putting us on 33 level with Doncaster, a record they’ve held since 1947.

The records keep tumbling, and the Blues keep marching on. We face one more league trip to Peterborough on Tuesday night before our visit to Wembley on Sunday to face the very same opponents in the Vertu Trophy final.

Keep Right On Bluenoses.

Full time: Blues 6-2 Barnsley (Stansfield, Davies, May, Harris, Dowell and King Jukey)

Ratings

Starting XI

Ryan Allsop: 6

Allsop had a bit of a mixed bag of a game. Displayed his usual excellent distribution which directly lead to Barnsley going down to 10, but he really should've done better with Barnsley's 2nd goal.

Ethan Laird: 7

Laird had a solid but unspectacular game. He provided a threat and didn't allow much down his side, but didn't play a key part in any of the goals from his advanced position.

Christoph Klarer: 7

Klarer was solid defensively, and his ball played through Anderson to win the penalty. He got his head on most of Roberts' long throws (except for the one which they scored from) and he played an all round good game.

Ben Davies: 7

Davies got himself on the scoresheet in back-to-back home games after he bagged his first Blues goal last weekend. He had a real battle against the physical and dangerous Humphrys; he didn't win everything, but I thought he did a solid job given the physical mismatch.

Alex Cochrane: 7

Cochrane had an uncharacteristically off-day defensively - not that he was terrible, but he wasn't superb and he was responsible for a few sloppy errors especially in the first half. That being said, he redeemed himself with his cross for May's goal which was sublime, almost a mirror image of his cross for Stansfield's goal against Wrexham.

Tomoki Iwata: 6

The battle for the best League One midfield wasn't really able to play out in December due to the awful conditions, but the men in Blue won it comfortably this time around. Iwata though, like Cochrane, did have some sloppy moments in the first half and he perhaps could've challenged Keillor-Dunn better for Barnsley's first.

Paik Seung-Ho: 7

Still, we had South Korean international Paik to truly establish dominance. He combined well in midfield with his teammates and sat Jonathan Russell on his backside in the second half to end any debate some fans thought they had.

Kieran Dowell: 8

Dowell played at the top of his game. He was involved in most of our dangerous play throughout the match and got himself deservedly on the scoresheet. I really hope we see this man again next season.

Willum Þór Willumsson: 5

I've dished out 5's for Willum quite often recently, and Saturday was unfortunately no different. Post match, Davies said he's got a virus and that's why he was withdrawn but he did lose his header at the near post for Barnsley's first just before being subbed and he looked way off the pace in general yet again. I almost hope that he is suffering with an injury or something, because he's way off the levels he set earlier in the season and I hope that's not the last time we see him play at that level because when he does, he's really impactful. That being said, injury or not, I think he's overdue a period of time out of the starting 11.

Keshi Anderson: 7

Keshi has become a really important player for Blues this season, and despite not getting a goal or assist, he put in a really good performance. It was his run that caused the sending off, his run that won us the penalty, and he got into a great position early doors to take the lead, but was unfortunately unable to take the chance.

Jay Stansfield: 7

Stansfield retook his place as penalty taker despite Dowell being on the pitch, and slotted home convincingly despite the keeper guessing the right way. He's come in for a bit of stick this past week with other fans pointing out the number of penalty goals in his league tally of 18, but what they don't see is his general play and incredible work ethic. He was shifted out to the left in the first half when Willum was substituted, and still had a big impact on the game. He should've buried his chance when Barnsley gave it away at the back in the first half, and he almost scored a screamer in the second half too. It wasn't "his day" and he still scored a goal. That's his quality.

Subs

Alfie May: 9

May was introduced in the first half in place of Willumsson, and had a superb impact. His general play was fantastic, particularly in the second half where he managed to score and get two assists for Harris and later for Dowell. He almost took Ben Davies' goal from him too - the stadium PA certainly thought he had. It was a great performance, and I hope he's now starting to hit form at the right time. Realistically, he was man of the match, but I've ceremonially given it to someone else. I wonder who that might be (!)

Alfons Sampsted: 6

Sampsted came on for Laird in the 67th minute, and played a solid game without having a huge impact. I did notice how well he picked up more central positions almost alongside Paik and Iwata, whereas his first team counterpart often provides width.

Luke Harris: 7

Harris came on in the 67th minute too when he replaced Anderson, and has looked really, really bright in his last few appearances. With Willumsson out of form, he might just be making a case for his first team slot back. He looked agile and tricky, direct in his play, and took his chance with the composure of a man a few years his elder.

Marc Leonard: 6

Leonard came on in the 83rd minute to replace Paik and didn't have a real impact (positive or negative) on the team - not a bad thing when the man he replaced is so good.

Lukas Jutkiewicz: 7 - Man of the Match

What can I say. Jutkiewicz's ninth season in Royal Blue, truly through thick and thin, perhaps hasn't gone as he might've wanted on a personal note. He's not played much football, and when he has, he's not reached the levels of his former self. At 36 years old, you'd expect that. Still, he comes on and clearly tries his best to impact each game. Davies has cited his influence on the dressing room throughout the season, and said post match how he needs senior players like Jutkiewicz to be able to do his job effectively and couldn't speak highly enough of him. So it was a fantastic moment to see him score his first league goal of the season, and with that probably being his last in front of the Tilton or maybe even for us or his career as a whole, it feels only fitting to give him the honourary man of the match. Such scenes have never before been witnessed for a sixth goal, and if that is to be his swansong, he's gone out on the highest note. His loyalty to Blues throughout the years and continual commitment to Birmingham City, despite how poor it has been during that time, should never be forgotten. In an era that's seen very few potential club heroes, Jutkiewicz will stand tall above the rest.