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)