Stevenage 0 v Birmingham City 1 - EFL League 1
Thursday 24th April 2025. EFL League 1. Stevenage (0) 0 v. Birmingham City (0) 1 (Alex Cochrane 75). Attendance: 4,135 inc. 1,313 away fans
Stevenage: , Luther James-Wildin (C), Dan Butler, Dan Sweeney, Louis Appere (Brandon Hanlan, 67), Jordan Roberts (Louis Thompson, 67), Charlie Goode, Lewis Freestone (Jake Young, 88), Harvey White, Jamie Reid (Elliot List, 68), Dan Phillips. Unused subs - Rylee Mitchell, Carl Piergianni, Kyle Edwards.
Birmingham City: Ryan Allsop, Taylor Gardner-Hickman, Grant Hanley, Ben Davies, Lee Myung Jae (Alex Cochrane, 71), Paik Seung-Ho, Marc Leonard (Tomoki Iwata, 67), Luke Harris (Willum Willumsson, 67), Kieran Dowell, Keshi Anderson (Jay Stansfield, 66), Alfie May (C) (Lukas Jutkiewicz, 77). Unused subs - Bailey Peacock-Farrell, Christoph Klarer.
Kenny Jackett’s all-conquering Wolverhampton Wanderers side of 2013-14, won the League 1 title by amassing an impressive record total of 103 points. Tonight's 0-1 win at Stevenage nudged Blues up to the 102 point mark, with three games still left to play, as they set their sights on dethroning Wolves. Whereas Jackett’s team have been feted for their endeavours (and rightly so), Chris Davies’ side’s achievements have been met with a strong undercurrent of resentment among the followers of other League 1 teams.
Perhaps that stems from the Molineux based club’s more flamboyant approach to their tilt at the League 1 title, as opposed to Birmingham’s patient, pragmatic and efficient game-plan and mindset. Granted, it’s not always aesthetically appealing or easy on the eye, as Blues grind out results, but the statistics speak for themselves: highest goal scorers in League 1, least goals conceded, promoted as Champions and potentially a record number of points in the bag any time soon. “It ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it… and that’s what gets results”. A sixteen point lead over second placed Wrexham (with a game in hand) is surely deserving of at least a measure of grudging respect from their peers, isn’t it?
This was only the second ever league meeting between these two sides. The first, just a month ago, saw Blues win 2-1 at St.Andrew’s. Kieran Dowell opened the scoring on that occasion from the penalty spot. Tonight he helped to create the only goal of the game in the seventy-fifth minute, when he gathered the ball out on the right flank, following Stevenage’s attempts to clear their lines, before hooking the ball, via a slight deflection, across the pitch towards Alex Cochrane, who took it on the half-volley with his first touch and dispatched the ball into the bottom corner of the net, beyond the reach of Taye Ashby-Hammond, from twenty-five yards out. It was Cochrane’s first goal for Birmingham since joining them from Heart of Midlothian. He’d only entered the fray three minutes before he netted. Cue the ‘impact-sub’claims and all of those other tenuously associated coaching manual buzzwords.
It was a case of déjà vu for everyone who had been present at the EFL (Vertu) Trophy - Quarter-Final, played between these two sides at the Lamex Stadium in February. When Jay Stansfield had been introduced from the bench in the seventieth minute, before scoring the only goal of the game. Yet another low scoring win for those fluky, lucky and ‘nowt special Blues, eh!? You could be forgiven for thinking that they’ve known what they have been doing all along and that it’s all part of a much, much bigger picture. But hey! Yon doubters and naysayers, carry on distorting the facts and trying to justify your own blinkered narrative. After all, football is all about opinions… even bullshit ones like yours ;-). Incidentally, I’m generalising and not aiming barbs at anybody in particular, but if you feel that you’ve just been slighted, then oh dear! How sad! Never mind! You probably deserved it.
Both teams had several other half-decent opportunities to score. Alfie May and Taylor Gardner-Hickman both missed the target from around the fringes of Boro’s six-yard box; while Jordan Roberts and Jamie Reid both ought to have done better when they momentarily escaped the clutches of the visitors relentless defending… and in the last minute of added time, Ryan Allsop did well to turn Harvey White’s last-ditch effort around the post. If that one would’ve have gone in, then Blues would’ve had to settle for the fact that they had been restricted to having only picked up their 100th point of the season.
Once again there was plenty of “How the bloody hell have those jammy buggers, pulled that off again!?” conjecture on the walk through the subways back to the car-park. But in having claimed their thirty-first league win of the the season, surely even the most cynical and critical of onlookers must be starting to realise that ‘the boys in royal-blue’ (well, black and flame red tonight), know exactly what they’re doing. Don’t forget what your dad told you kids… caution prevents abortion. So then, returning to this blog post intro: were Wolves circa 2013-14 better than Birmingham City 2024-25?
Well (I’m going off on a tangent again), cast your mind back to the final of the 1974 World Cup tournament. We had the sexy, cavalier Total-Football of the much loved Dutch, against the grim, consistent and annoyingly efficient West Germans. Who were the best? I know who I preferred to watch, but they didn’t win it, the best team did. Chris Davies was given a remit to win, when he was offered the job at Birmingham City… and he’s instilled a methodical winners mentality into his players. They can see quite clearly that in embracing his approach and adhering to his mindset works, more often than not. So, having found a winning formula, why not run with it and see where it might take them? FT: Boro 0 v Blues 1
“Quite a local one for you tonight Rob!”, quipped my friend, as we waited for the traffic to clear. “Yes mate! Straight down the A1 from mine, turn left and here I am”. Or, in other words: a two-hundred and thirty mile round trip, taking a total of four and a half hours because of hold-ups at the Black Cat roundabout. But, err… yes, local(ish).
One last thing, teamsheets are available at Stevenage FC, but the programme itself is only available online.
