Birmingham City 4 v Mansfield Town 0 - EFL League 1
Sunday 27th April 2025 - EFL League 1 - Birmingham City (2 ) 4 ( Keshi Anderson 24, Willum Willumsson 39, Kieran Dowell 50, Tomoki Iwata 57) v. Mansfield Town (0) 0. Attendance: 27,920 inc. 2,003 away fans.
Birmingham City: Ryan Allsop, Ethan Laird (Taylor Gardner-Hickman 68), Christoph Klarer (C), Ben Davies, Alex Cochrane, Paik Seung-Ho (Marc Leonard 79), Tomoki Iwata, Willum Willumsson (Luke Harris 67), Kieran Dowell (Lukas Jutkiewicz 68), Keshi Anderson (Alfie May 68), Jay Stansfield. Unused subs - Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Grant Hanley.
Mansfield Town: Christy Pym, George Williams (George Maris HT), Jordan Bowery, Calum MacDonald (Stephen McLauglin 72), Aden Flint (C), Keanu Baccus, Adedeji Oshilaja, Matthew Craig (Louis Reed 44), Jordan Rhodes (Ben Waine 62), Caylan Vickers, Hiram Boateng (Stephen Quinn 72). Unused subs - Scott Flinders, Dom Dwyer.
Earlier in the week, Mansfield had celebrated the fact that they had avoided relegation back to League 2, following a campaign that clearly illustrated where they will need strengthening and what sort of changes are required to the playing personnel, if the Stags are to be competitive at this level next term. Y’know, like they were in the early months of the 2024-25 season, before injuries, inconsistency and the realities of some of the older players not having either the legs and/or stamina to see out a whole nine to ten months of action. Harsh! You might say. But there's nothing more brutal than the truth.
With age and experience, comes not just wisdom and an unprecedented knowledge of what it takes to perform at this level; but also a back-catalogue of pre-existing injuries, tired limbs, spent muscle tissue and a loss of stamina to maintain the necessary tempo to have the same kind impact on games, that one probably used to have. It comes to us all… the mind is ten steps ahead of everyone else around you, but the flesh is trailing several yards behind the required standard and fitness levels.
Blues, had already been crowned as League 1 champions with six games still remaining; this afternoon they made light work of beating Mansfield Town 4-0 in their final home game of the season, where they moved on to 105 points, a new record for the division, surpassing Wolves' previous total of 103 from 11 years ago. With two away games still left to play: Blackpool on Wednesday and then the already relegated Cambridge United next weekend, Chris Davies’ side now have the overall EFL record of 106 points, set by Reading in the 2005-06 Championship season, in their sights.
I was at the Racecourse Ground yesterday to see Wrexham clinch second place and automatic promotion. Good for them! But, as of 4.54pm today, Birmingham City had a sixteen point lead (with a game in hand) over Phil Parkinson’s runners up. As Nathan Jones might say: 😉 ‘That's the difference between a big, top club, as opposed to a big-top 🎪 one”. Joking aside, the respective points differential between first and second place, illustrates just how good this side, who have been grinding out a string of narrow victories all season long, genuinely are. A model of clinical, methodical, consistent, efficiency. And if you still don't ‘get it’, that probably demonstrates just how little you understand about how football really works. Just saying.
I’ve seen several keyboard warrior types, aiming allegations at Blues that they have bought the league… and are both undeserving and arrogant. For the record, the financial incomings and outgoings at St. Andrew's are all in order, the books are balanced and available for scrutiny. And as for the claim that Blues are arrogant, they're actually not. They’re just infinitely better than the opposition teams that they have played this season… and far too good for the third division.
Ask any of the Mansfield fans who travelled through for this afternoon's celebratory encounter, if they found the welcome that they received in Birmingham to be arrogant in any kind of way whatsoever. The ones mingling with Blues devotees in the local bars and fan zones all seemed to he enjoying the ambience. And the Stags fans on the same shuttle bus back to the station after the game as me, were actually invited out into the city for a drink by the Blues contingent who were on board. While on the train home, Mansfield’s supporters and the Tamworth Blues shared a drink and a hearty sing-song together. Funk me! Football’s gone soft in it's old age. We’ll all be making cakes for each other at this rate! 😉
Three league defeats all season, all away from home, combined with a completely unbeaten league campaign at their St. Andrew's home, suggests that this team have got a bit more going for them, than mere financial clout. But don't let the facts dissipate any bitterness and grudges you haters might be experiencing, pertaining to the bestest ever third-tier side there has ever been (and probably ever will be). Sometimes, even the most forceful of reality slaps are never quite hard enough to knock any sense into the terminally stupid. Especially when their warped view of life was incubated from planting seeds of jealousy in ankle-deep bullshit.
Arriving at the ground today, there were free scarves left over the backs of all the seats in the home areas. J’accuse the twats that pinched other people's scarves, particularly the steward in the Gil Merrick lower tier who was spotted with several of them hanging out of his coat pocket. An irate father who's kids had gone without theirs, soon made his feelings known to the slimy individual, as he liberated the stolen items and redistributed them to the people they were intended for.
The visitors gallantly gave Birmingham a guard of honour, as they entered the field of play to a crescendo of noise, a classy touch by Nigel Clough’s side, that went down well with everyone and was greatly appreciated, setting the tone for the remainder of the afternoon. Mansfield started well and even created the first chance of a game that was set against the backdrop of a raucous party. But after ten minutes or so, Blues took over, dominated the remainder of the contest and put on a display that show-cased exactly why they are worthy champions.
Inevitably, Birmingham took the lead after 24 minutes, when Keshi Anderson played a quick one-two with Willum Willumsson on the edge of the Stags area before planting the hall into the bottom corner of the net. And just before half-time, Blues doubled their lead, when Ethan Laird headed Alex Cochrane's cross towards Christy Pym’s goal; the visitors keeper blocked Laird’s effort, but Willumsson was perfectly placed to snaffle up the loose ball, before firing past Pym from six-yards out. Five minutes after the restart Kieran Dowell increased Blues lead when he firmly planted Paik Seung-ho’s left-wing cross past Pym with a well-placed header. Tomoki Iwata added a fourth just before the hour mark, after Dowell played him through into space with am audacious back-heeled pass.
I was genuinely worried for Mansfield at this stage; they (and their lively travelling fans) didn't deserve to be on the end of a heavy defeat. ‘Our Nigel’, “A nice young man, with a lovely smile!”, was probably glad that injuries had prevented Blues from putting out a full-strength side, but the nature of the hosts game-plan, means that every single player that comes into the team, knows exactly what is expected of him. A rack of substitutes slowed the tempo down, as Blues saw out the remainder of the game comfortably, by applying the basic rules of ‘Davies-ball:, i.e. they were passing the ball to death and ramping up their possession coefficient statistics.
The legendary Lukas Jutkiewicz entered the fray for the last twenty-minutes and was the target of several searching balls as his teammates vied to provide him with a goal to compliment his final home appearance in a Blues shirt. On a ‘scorchio’ afternoon in the West Midlands, I’m quite sure that the last thing that the tiring visitors defence wanted to have to deal with, was the big workhorse striker careering around and using his physical attributes to good effect. “We’re on the pitch if Jukey scores!”, sang the home fans, but the big ‘un didn't get his farewell goal and Blues raised the drawbridge at the other end and contented themselves with a 4-0 win.
At full time, despite several announcements asking supporters to stay off of the pitch, a number of people charged on anyway. It's an annual tradition and to be fair a lot of the culprits had never had to stay in the stands before, because there has seldom been any kind of trophy presentation happening on the hallowed turf. Whether such a dilemma is to become a regular occurrence in coming seasons remains to be seen. The future is unwritten, as I am wont to quote quite often on this Substack variant of my ‘misanthropic, self-indulgent, bullshit blog, with added football content’ with tedious regularity. So let's not he making any rash predictions just yet. Let's just say, Birmingham City are in better shape now to face the rigours of the Championship than they have been since Chris Davies was still a lad.
“We’re Birmingham City, we’re in for a shock! 😲”, sang the celebrating Blues fans, in response to all of the snide early-season brickbats aimed at the club, by people who said that they wouldn't have it all their own way and would be in for a shock if they thought they would be going straight back up. In the event, relegation and the subsequent opportunity to reset, rebuild and recover couldn't have gone any better, if it had all been deliberately planned that way. Surely not, eh!?. On to Blackpool on Wednesday night then (via a diversion to Burton Albion on Tuesday night), to see if Blues can break another record, “Where the brass band plays - tiddly-om-pom-pom!’.
