Blues News: a much-needed break

It’s the international break this week, although you might not have realized that from the continuation of soccer in the US. Unless you were watching the USA’s embarrassing last-gasp loss to Panam last night, that is. So Birmingham City gets a rest before the final stretch of the EFL season.

The Blues were not in fact supposed to get a rest this weekend; they were scheduled to play Stevenage tomorrow. League One does not in general observe the international break but both the Blues and Wycombe Wanderers have enough players called up for international duty that their games had to be postponed.

Which means that City will be back to having 2 games in hand over Wrexham (and 1 in hand over Wycombe). The next game will be against bottom team Shrewsbury Town a week Saturday at 10:00am.

The Blues only played one game last week, ending up sharing the points with 19th-place Northampton Town 1-1. Northampton did not really deserve that though as their goal was a very unlucky one goal by Tomoki Iwata. Keshi Anderson got the Blues’ goal and Iwata came very close to atoning for his error.

At the same time Wycombe and Wrexham were playing a crucial head-to-head game that included a lengthy 50-minute delay as a visiting Wrexham supporter had a serious medical emergency that needed urgent treatment. Wrexham ended up winning 1-0 on a late Sam Smith goal. That put the Wesh side temporarily in second place (for automatic promotion) but Wycombe regained that in midweek by beating Rotherham (14th) 3-2. They hold that position only on goal difference but it;s a hefty 7-goal advantage over Wrexham.

Wrexham will have the chance to retake second tomorrow as they play Stockport (10:00am, Paramount+) although that’s not a certainty as Stockport are 5th and a very strong side. A Wrexxham win would cut Birmingham’s lead at the top to 9 points (but with those games in hand that’s nothing to sweat about).