Birmingham City v Bristol Rovers

THE GAME

Manager Matt Taylor made five changes to his starting XI for his side’s game against Birmingham City at St Andrews.

It made little difference to the outcome, though, as the home side were two goals to good at half time and should have scored more than two on an afternoon when all Rovers could muster was three shots, only one of which was on target.

Given that they came into the game on the back of five consecutive wins, it was hardly surprising that Birmingham were full of confidence in the opening exchanges and Alfie May fired an early effort over the bar.

It didn’t take long for them to open their account, though; six minutes to be precise. The home side had wanted a penalty when Michael Forbes appeared to trip Willum Willumsson but referee Seb Stockridge awarded a corner instead. No matter, as when the corner came in it was cleared to the edge of the area where defender Lee Buchanan rifled a shot past Josh Griffiths and into the corner of the net.

Birmingham continued to probe for another goal and May and Krystian Bielik both went close but directed their efforts wide of target.

Inevitably they did score again, this time from the penalty spot. May’s shot from 16 yards out appeared to hit Connor Taylor’s arm and, on this occasion, Mr Stockbridge did point to the spot. Jay Stansfield calmly dispatched the penalty and, with only 38 minutes on the clock it was turning into a long afternoon for Taylor’s side.

Birmingham’s first half performance left their fans wondering how they had only managed two goals, while Rovers fans were wondering where the next shot, never mind a goal, was coming from.

The onslaught continued after the break, with Ben Davies, Tomoki Iwata and Stansfield all going close to extending the lead. May was denied by a fine James Wilson intervention, while Josh Griffiths saved well from May and Iwata fired a shot over the bar.

They kept searching for a third goal and might have managed it in the final minute, but Griffiths made a fine save from substitute Lucas Jutkewicz’s header.

THEY SAID WHAT?

‘You have to put it into the context of coming to Birmingham, the best team in the league, and playing them at their place. The goals obviously played a big part in the scoreline and the feel of the game. We can do a lot better defending the first one and the second one is not a penalty; the referee will admit that when he sees it.

‘The lads worked their socks off and I can’t fault them in terms of their endeavor. James Wilson and Connor Taylor defended the goal so well. Josh Griffiths has not been overly tested, but we gave the ball away too often and that is our biggest downfall at the moment.

‘We competed, we ran, we defended our goal well. But there comes a time when there are other areas of the game that have to improve. The levels have to go up, otherwise we will continue this vein of not creating and not putting the opposition goal under any pressure whatsoever. 2-0 is not a nice scoreline but a lot of teams are going to come here and get beaten and struggle to create.’ (Rovers manager Matt Taylor)

‘All of us are hurting due to the manner of the game and how we lost. Besides the two goals, I can’t fault our efforts. We did all we could, but I just think it’s one of those where their quality just shone through.

‘I think we just need to reflect on everything, strip everything back and go again next week. How we conceded was poor as it’s not like they cut through us. The first goal was just a corner and a shot from the edge of the area, so that’s something we have to reflect on and try to do better. It’s hard to concede that early in a game.

‘We just have to worry about ourselves. Individually, everyone needs to do what needs to be done. I think you can say we need to do this or that, but if we just focus on ourselves then it will come. We need to regroup, go to training, train hard and get ready for the next game.’ (Rovers midfielder Kamil Conteh)

‘I thought we blew them away in that first half again; we were right on the front foot, got after them, played forward and created chances. It could have been more at half time, but I was still really pleased with how we started the game.

‘Of course, you can say can we score more goals in the second half. There is always that little bit of jeopardy at 2-0 if they score from a set piece or on the counter, but we controlled it well. Again, we could have had three or four, but it was a really good win.

‘Clean sheets are a massive team effort, the first line of defence we have is our attackers and if we defend well it’s because the strikers are pressing well. In the last six games I have liked how solid we have looked and we have given very little to the opposition.’ (Birmingham manager Chris Davies)