Chris Davies hails two-goal Jay Stansfield after Birmingham beat leaders Wrexham

Posted Tuesday, September 17, 2024 by PA

Birmingham boss Chris Davies hailed two-goal Jay Stansfield after he helped the Blues come from behind to earn a 3-1 win over league leaders Wrexham.

The pre-match build-up was centred on the clubs’ celebrity investors, with seven-time Super Bowl winner and Birmingham minority owner Tom Brady and Wrexham co-owner Rob McElhenney in the stands at St Andrew’s.

Both teams were unbeaten coming into the fixture and that quality was on show from the off as Jack Marriott fired Wrexham in front with just three minutes on the clock.

Stansfield signed for Birmingham on a permanent basis in a big-money move over the summer but was clearly unaffected by his price tag as he scored in either half to give City the lead before Tomoki Iwata’s stunner sealed the points.

Tempers boiled over after a coming together between Paul Mullin and Alex Cochrane started a brawl, while Krystian Bielik was sent off late on but the win put Blues level on points with their opponents at the summit.

Davies said: “From Jay’s point of view, he scored a real striker’s finish on the first one, instinctive rebound and then the second goal you have to give credit to Cochrane but not an easy chance on that angle.

“It wasn’t just his goals, the pressing and work-rate, the intensity of the runs, the movement, there’s so much more to it than that, not just the goals but what he contributes to the team.

“I’ve said a few times that by making sure performances are there and playing well, we will get the outcome.

“The performance was excellent, it’s the best we’ve played for a largest period in a game this season.”

Brady, chairman of a new advisory board at Birmingham, was joined at St Andrew’s by former England duo David Beckham and Gary Neville.

Davies insists he did not pay attention to the pre-match hype ahead of kick-off and applauded his players for keeping their focus purely on the football.

He added: “We weren’t paying attention to that sort of stuff.

“It’s something I did address with the players that this is going on but that’s not our domain, ours is the pitch, what we do and the performance, external stuff is irrelevant to us.

“They will follow things on social media and will know the attention and hype around the game but I didn’t see any change at all from the concentration point of view.”

Wrexham were unable to keep a fifth consecutive clean sheet, suffering their first defeat of the season.

Boss Phil Parkinson said: “It’s a good learning curve, we’ve hardly conceded a goal this season and haven’t been behind in a game.

“At the start of the season if you said you’re going to be top of the league and after the first three away games you’re going to only lose once, we’d have all taken that.

“Five games unbeaten, during the season you will lose games of football, that’s inevitable – we’ll take the lessons into the next few games.

“We’re top of the league and have 40 games to go but any defeat is tough to take.”