Blues 2-0 Stockport: Alfies Back

With Wycombe dropping points against Exeter a day prior, our first home game in a month presented an opportunity to make up ground on their excellent run.

Blues are back on a winning streak. And it’s no coincidence that it has aligned with May returning to his favoured number 9 role.

With Wycombe dropping points against Exeter a day prior, our first home game in a month presented an opportunity to make up ground on their excellent run. But Stockport, promoted from League Two as champions last season, are in the playoffs for a reason. I’m a big fan of their manager Dave Challinor, someone who I personally wanted to see in the Blues dugout prior to our links and eventual appointment of Chris Davies, and there’s smatterings of real quality in a well-drilled side that could’ve made for a tough fixture.

Stockport started the game playing with pace and intensity, not allowing Blues to settle into our rhythm, and after 5 minutes could’ve put themselves ahead. Their left winger played an early ball around the edge of the Blues box for William Collar, who’s shot rattled the underside of the bar and bounced out.

Blues responded by imposing our trademark style. Pressing high, dominant in battles for the second ball, and slowly squeezing the opposition closer to their goal with possession play. Davies fielded the same 11 from the previous league game against Exeter. Keshi Anderson and Alex Cochrane stayed wide and delivered balls into the box with pace and quality when given the opportunity.

Paik delivered a free kick from the left hand side with that same pace and quality, which forced the Stockport defence to head behind for a corner, and Anderson found himself in the box on the 18th minute and fired narrowly wide at the near post.

But it was the high press that created the opening goal. Keshi read Hinchliffe’s throw out to Touray and intercepted out wide. Alfie May peeled away from the defence and fired low into the net via a deflection to put us 1-0 up on the 26th minute.

The intensity of Blues’ play ramped up, and on the 34th minute, Iwata battled with Touray and Bate against the Stockport backline, and played the ball back to Stansfield, who played a perfectly weighted through ball to put Anderson in behind. Alfie read the play, and made himself available for Keshi to cut back to him and grab his second goal of the game. May showed what he provides when playing up top – a true striker’s instinct. Both goals came from being in the right place at the right time, and it paid dividends.

Blues continued to dominate possession for the remainder of the half, but on the 42nd minute Stockport crafted a great chance. Neat interplay from a throw in resulted in a ball pulled back to the Stockport left winger, who’s shot forced a great stop from Ryan Allsop, who had to recover quickly to make another great save and deny Kyle Wootton from close range. The importance of keeping the score at 2-0 going into half-time can’t be understated, and Allsop deserves all the plaudits for his double save.

Half time: Blues 2-0 Stockport (May x2)

Challinor responded with 3 half time changes and a tactical switch. Having seen their mid-block not put enough pressure on a Blues side confident in possession, Stockport opted to press high and forced Blues to go direct and defend for 20-25 minutes of the second half. We showed a different side to our game, and defended staunchly, denying our opposition clear cut chances and forcing them into shots from range which never troubled Allsop.

Davies reacted to the change of style and took our goal-scorer off in favour of the aerial threat of Lyndon Dykes. This enabled us to play more direct for the second half and try to fashion chances playing over the Stockport press.

Demonstrating this, Dykes won a header from a Davies long ball, and laid it off to Willumsson who played through Stansfield. But Stockport recovered well, and forced Jay to take a weak shot on his left, saved by the keeper.

Short passing between Anderson, Iwata and Willumsson on the 75th minute resulted in another chance. The Icelandic giant played Anderson in behind, similar to our second goal. But in the absence of Alfie May, he was left with limited options yet played a great cross to Stansfield who attempted an unorthodox finish from the penalty spot, which was well saved by Hinchliffe.

Blues continued our resilience defence and picked up a second clean sheet in a row in the league, and back-to-back 2-0 victories. Blues ultimately had too much quality for Stockport and spent most of the second half in second gear, reserving energy for a trip to 8th place Barnsley on the weekend. Davies’ men will want three league victories on the bounce, and will be backed by 5,000 travelling Brummies.

Full time: Blues 2-0 Stockport (May x2)

Ratings

Starting XI

Ryan Allsop: 8

Ryan might have ended the live competition for the number 1 shirt for now with his performance. Great with his feet as always, but his double save at the end of the first half was as important as scoring a goal down the other end.

Krystian Bielik: 7

Bielik was deployed at right back again, slotting into a 3 at the back shape in possession. He dealt with his winger very well with good reading of the game. A good game, away from his natural position again.

Christoph Klarer: 7

Klarer won his physical battle against Wootton, and put in another solid performance on the ball. He's less able to venture forwards in this system, being in the middle of a back 3 in possession, but showed his quality once again.

Ben Davies: 7

As a team, we just look far more solid with Davies at the back. I'm not quite sure what he does exactly to achieve that, but he gives off a calming aura, and provides natural balance to the side being left footed and playing at left centre-back.

Alex Cochrane: 7

Cochrane provides the easiest rating each week, consistently putting in a 7/8 out of 10 performance. He's solid defensively, knows when to venture forwards and when to remain back, and has a brilliant delivery. You could use that to describe every game he's played for us, which was true again against Stockport. Really impressive for a man who hasn't had a backup to rotate with, and has consequentially played the most minutes in a Blues shirt this season.

Paik Seung-Ho: 7

Our South Korean man put on another strong display, controlling the game first half and defending well the second. He also sat down a Stockport defender while attacking down the left in the first half, in a comical moment which epitomises his class.

Tomoki Iwata: 7

Paik's partner in crime was much of the same. Iwata was again solid in possession, solid defensively, and his battling played a big part in our second goal. No goal for him this week, but no less of an overall performance from Tomoki.

Keshi Anderson: 9 - Man of the Match

You could make an argument for either Anderson or May being man of the match, but I thought Keshi was outstanding last night. His delivery was excellent, he made great runs in behind all evening and never shies away from his defensive duties. He's really turned up this season, and Davies is getting the best out of him. I'm delighted for the man who joined Blues off the back of a pre-season trial last summer.

Willum Þór Willumsson: 6

A quiet game for Willumsson, as Stockport defended narrow and didn't allow him the space he usually thrives in, but still played his part in allowing his teammates out wide to make an impact.

Jay Stansfield: 7

A quiet night for Stansfield too, but I felt he contributed slightly more. He played a great pass through to Anderson for our second, and had a couple of decent shots in the second half that were well saved, but I think he needs more gametime in this role before we see the best of him again.

Alfie May: 9

As I'm sure all Blues fans are, I'm so pleased for Alfie. He's been forced out of position since the signing of Stansfield, but has worked tirelessly behind him and just hasn't found himself on the scoresheet often. He returned to the number 9 against Exeter and remained there against Stockport. It'll be an on-going debate about who should start up front, but I think May offers that poacher instinct in the box which Stansfield doesn't quite have yet, and we score goals from it. With two goals, both displaying that striker's intelligence in the box, I think he's nailed down this position for the time being.

Subs

Lyndon Dykes: 7

Lyndon replaced Alfie on the 60th minute when Blues had lost control of the ball and were forced by Stockport to play more direct. I thought he played his role well, worked hard to close the defence down and won headers often against their backline. I don't think it's our most effective way of playing, but it does a job when we're forced into it and offers a plan B when the opposition press is good.

Ethan Laird: 6

Laird was given a run out for Anderson in the last 10 minutes, and didn't really make an impact on the game other than providing fresh legs to see it out.

Luke Harris: N/A

Harris replaced Stansfield on the 85th minute.

Marc Leonard: N/A

Leonard replaced Willumsson on the 85th minute. My only criticism of Davies at the moment is I wish he would bring Leonard on earlier for one of our midfield pairing. I felt we might've regained control of the ball if we had his legs and security in possession for the final 30 minutes in midfield.
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