Blues News: Happy New Year!

Birmingham City’s heavily-packed Christmas schedule is now almost over, with just one game remaining before the team gets a full week off.

From the four games between December 21st and January 1st, the Blues generated 8 points, although the results were not quite as convincing as they might have been. First, the 1-0 win at Crawley Town needed a late Jay Stansfield goal despite predictably dominating the play. That was followed up with a December 23rd 2-0 win over last place Burton Albion. That one needed a Jay Stansfield PK and an own goal even though the hosts held a ridiculous 79% possession and outshot the visitors 13-3 and 2-0 on target.

Those two results were enough to put the good guys back top of the table and earn a manager-approved day off for Christmas. They also extended the win streak to 8 games in all competitions (7 in league play).

But the necessary team rotation after that brought the streak to an end. An uninspiring 0-0 draw against 15th-place Blackpool on the 29th was followed by a crushing 1-1 draw at Stockport County. the Blues leading after just 5 minutes on an Alfie May long-distance screamer (his third against the team this year) but giving up a late equalizer to split the points. The Blues also needed a 90th-minute stop by Christoph Klarer to save the point. With Wycombe Wanderers winning all three of their games since Boxing Day (that’s December 26th in case you weren’t aware) the two teams are now both on 50 points with Wycombe getting the nod on goal difference but with one more match played. Wrexham are still two points back but have played 2 more games than the Blues and also have to be looking over their shoulders at Huddersfield, who are 5 points behind them with 2 games in hand. Stockport, for all their late heroics, have in fact fallen out of the promotion playoff spots as a result of a solid stretch of wins by Barnsley, including a 2-1 win over Wrexham.

The holiday run of games wraps up tomorrow (9:00am, no US TV) at Wigan Athletic, who sit in 16th right now. Wycombe play Blackpool tomorrow and Huddersfield Tuesday. Not easy, and that also means they will be two games ahead of Birmingham before the FA Cup games next weekend.

Also helping the Blues was today’s news that Wycombe are losing two loanee players – Caleb Taylor and Aaron Morley – to recalls. Both were key parts of the Chairboys’ (yes, that really is their nickname) roster and leave holes that will need filling quickly in the transfer window. The Blues themselves lost defender Lee Buchanan for the season to a knee injury suffered in the draw with Blackpool, but he had only played 4 games this year so his absence won’t be quite as damaging.

What is clear is that EFL League One is more or less a 4-team race now and there is everything to play for in the second half of the season.