Birmingham City kept their early unbeaten streak in League One going with a confident 2-0 away win at Rotherham United, with zero losses coming their way now from their opening six games in the division.
Jay Stansfield has been an obvious standout performer early on, and the ex-Fulham man picked up his third League One goal from just two starts so far versus the Millers, to help the Blues return back to St. Andrew’s victorious.
He will want to keep up this rich vein of goalscoring form as the games come thick and fast in the third tier, with Alfie May even finding he had been demoted to the bench for the trip to the New York Stadium, over Stansfield being left out.
Stansfield’s performance vs Rotherham
Lyndon Dykes was given the nod to start over the former Charlton Athletic sharp shooter for the away game in South Yorkshire, as Stansfield excelled in a different position in an attacking midfield role, over operating as the lone centre-forward.
Despite the fact he wasn’t the leading man up top, the on-fire Blues number 28 would still show off his prowess in-front of goal, with this beautifully taken first-time finish by the 21-year-old looping over the Rotherham goalkeeper for 2-0 on the day.
Away from that stylish finish, Stansfield was also attempting to play his teammates into space all match long to make the victory more emphatic, with two key passes tallied up from his 42 touches of the ball.
Winning five duels in the contest for Chris Davies’ men too to show some grit in his game, the 21-year-old is fully justifying his extortionate £20m price-tag so far, and will be seen as an even more invaluable purchase if his strikes help Birmingham make an instant return to the Championship happen.
Away from the much-talked-about forward, however, and new midfield face Tomoki Iwata is already becoming a firm fan’s favourite at St. Andrew’s during the infancy of this campaign too, having swapped Celtic for the Blues this summer.
Iwata’s performance vs Rotherham
The Japanese midfield gem has two goals this season playing for Davies’ men, but is a far unlikelier source of goals from the holding positions in the side.
Originally unleashed into Scottish football by Ange Postecoglou at Celtic, Iwata has taken to the English game swimmingly, with his performance against Rotherham sticking out as a positive from the 2-0 win.
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Iwata’s performance in numbers |
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|---|---|
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Stat |
Iwata |
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Minutes played |
90 |
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Goals scored |
1 |
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Assists |
0 |
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Touches |
65 |
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Accurate passes |
51/57 (89%) |
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Key passes |
3 |
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Accurate long balls |
4/5 |
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Tackles |
2 |
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Total duels won |
5/10 |
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Stats by Sofascore |
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Looking at the table above, Iwata offered much more to his team’s cause away from just opening the scoring, with three key passes notched up in the contest as a presence allowing his promotion-chasing team to tick centrally.
But, away from tallying up 51 accurate passes from his 65 touches of the ball, the ex-Celtic man also displayed some bite in his performance, with five total duels won and two tackles also registered to stop the hosts from gaining any sort of foothold in the clash.
Birmingham Live journalist Alex Dicken would wax lyrical about the 27-year-old’s performance post-match subsequently, gifting the new Blues signing a stellar 9/10 rating and stating that he ‘makes so few mistakes’ under pressure.
Both Iwata and Stansfield will be very important moving forward for Davies in his side’s quest to win an instant promotion back up to the Championship, with the early signs suggesting that Birmingham have the ability to remain perched near the top of the division all campaign long.
