Birmingham 1-0 QPR

Match Report

I was marginally more optimistic going into this one, although not much more given our present form, and didn’t make the trip to St Andrew’s, choosing to watch it on Sky instead. Birmingham are in the bottom half of the Championship and have been inconsistent all season (like us). Still, after the 4-0 humiliation at home to Middlesbrough on Sunday, you’d have hoped for at least a semblance of a response. Chair, Burrell, Madson, Dembélé – all still out, of course. Although – heaven be praised – Kwame Poku was on the bench.

Julien Stéphan made four changes to the team dismantled at Loftus Road. Steve Cook came in at centre back alongside Jimmy Dunne, with Ronnie Edwards moving into midfield, replacing Isaac Hayden; Jake Clarke-Salter moved to left back instead of Rhys Norrington-Davies; and Paul Smyth started on the right, with Harvey Vale shuffling over to replace Kieran Morgan at no 10. That meant we lined up in a 4-4-2 formation as follows: Joe Walsh in goal; Amadou Mbengue, Dunne, Cook and Clarke-Salter in defence; Edwards, Jonathan Varane, Vale and Smyth in midfield; and Koki Saito and Richard Kone up front. Note: we started with five centre backs!

The opening exchanges gave little cause for optimism. Birmingham looked sharp and purposeful from the off, with Ibrahim Osman causing problems almost immediately – his cross-cum-shot grazed the crossbar after just two minutes. Four minutes later, he did the damage for real, sending a low cross into the box, and finding Patrick Roberts, who fired home from close range. One-nil after six minutes, and Walsh barely had time to pick the ball out of the net before the danger resumed.

Christoph Klarer connected with a free-kick at the far post soon afterwards and hooked the ball towards goal, with only some acrobatic defending from Mbengue preventing Birmingham from doubling their lead. Walsh then had to be alert on several occasions, denying Osman, Roberts and then Stansfield in quick succession, before Ethan Laird saw a header come back off the post.

The goal didn’t knock us sideways entirely, with Edwards putting in some solid defensive work, but Varane was again a liability in possession, losing the ball in dangerous areas and doing little to suggest he has recovered anything like his best form. Osman picked up a yellow card in the 25th minute – a small mercy given the havoc he’d been causing – and Laird was also booked just before half time.

Nothing could disguise the extent of Birmingham’s dominance. We didn’t have a single shot in the entire first half, let alone one on target. Birmingham enjoyed 70% of possession in the first period and, as their head coach Chris Davies noted afterwards, should have gone in with a more comfortable lead than 1-0.

Stéphan responded at the break by hauling off both Saito and Varane and replacing them with Rayan Kolli and Kieran Morgan. We finally managed our first effort on goal in the 71st minute. Vale curled wide as we threatened briefly, and Poku, who replaced Smyth in the 70th minute, was easily our most lively attacking presence in the second half, adding directness and flashing an effort across goal in one of our rare moments of genuine pressure.

Norrington-Davies came on at left back for Clarke-Salter in the 58th minute, and Hayden replaced Cook in the 79th, who, along with Kwame, contributed to an improved performance in the last 15 minutes or so. the closest we came to scoring was a header from Kolli in the 81st minute which looked to be just wide of the far post.

All told, we managed ten shots across the ninety-five minutes, compared to Birmingham’s 21, with just one on target. Our xG was a paltry 0.37 to their 1.70 – and that 0.37 flatters us. We created no big chances. I felt sorry for the few hundred Rangers fans who’d made the trip.

This defeat – our fourth in a row, and our fifth in the last six – is hard to take and raises questions about Stéphan’s leadership. Should he be replaced before we’re dragged into a relegation battle? The squad’s injury list remains a significant mitigating factor – so maybe Performance Director Ben Williams will be the sacrificial lamb – but at some point Stéphan needs to find a way to get something out of this group. The defeat leaves us in 18th, just four places above the drop.

You can watch the highlights on Sky Sports here.