Birmingham City survived an almighty scare this weekend in League One action, as a plucky Peterborough United side raced into an unexpected 2-0 lead early on at St. Andrew’s.
Instead of panicking and losing their cool, however, Chris Davies’ Blues continued to plug away and eventually won the barnstorming contest 3-2 in the end, with Krystian Bielik rising above everyone from a corner deep into the second half clinching the frantic win.
Jay Stansfield also impressed in the back-and-forth affair, as the bumper summer buy constantly gave his side energy when heads were down after the visitors raced into a shock two-goal advantage.
Stansfield’s performance in numbers
The former Fulham man certainly had a big part to play in the equaliser on the day, as his effort deflected off Posh defender Oscar Wallin to send the St. Andrew’s masses into pandemonium.
Away from this key contribution, Stansfield was also lively venturing forward aiming to tee up his teammates for chances, with six dribbles attempted across the course of the action-packed 90 minutes, on top of also registering one key pass.
The electric Birmingham number 28 was substituted off the pitch late on, for sharpshooter Alfie May to get a run-out, but the tenacious 21-year-old certainly helped steer his side to an unbelievable sixth league win in a row, which saw the Blues shoot up to the top spot in the division subsequently.
Whilst Stansfield impressed yet again, there were other performers from a Birmingham point of view who were equally as lively away from the standout attacker, including Icelandic winger Willum Thor Willumsson, who instigated the comeback with a poacher’s finish in the first 45 minutes.
Willumsson’s performance in numbers
The former Go Ahead Eagles man has become a staple of Davies’ starting line-ups now, having not missed a single minute of league action across his side’s last four League One encounters.
His spot in the XI is concrete for good reason too, as the 6 foot 3 midfielder stood out against Darren Ferguson’s dangerous visitors away from just his coolly converted strike.
|
Willumsson’s performance in numbers |
|
|---|---|
|
Stat |
Willumsson |
|
Minutes played |
90 |
|
Goals scored |
1 |
|
Assists |
0 |
|
Shots |
3 |
|
Touches |
60 |
|
Accurate passes |
32/42 (76%) |
|
Key passes |
1 |
|
Duels won |
2/7 |
|
Stats by Sofascore |
|
Much like Stansfield, who has proven this season that he knows how to bag a goal or two with three strikes from his first three League One games alongside being able to create, Willumsson also proved in this exciting contest that he can set up teammates to have their moment in the spotlight, with the Nordic attacker notching up 32 accurate passes when Davies’ men routinely attacked at full pelt.
Moreover, the winger could have had another goal next to his name with three shots registered at Jed Steer’s busy net, as the likes of Willumsson – and second-half substitute Scott Wright – caused all sorts of havoc for the away side to deal with.
He lost possession 16 times across the full 90 minutes, but the 25-year-old always bravely went about retrieving the ball, before Posh managed to sneak back into the enthralling contest.
It was seen as a coup that Birmingham managed to land Willumsson this summer – who has 11 senior Iceland caps next to his name – as the towering 25-year-old continues to adapt to England swimmingly, with two goals and two assists picked up from seven third tier clashes.
The attacker was gifted an 8/10 rating by Birmingham Live journalist Alex Dicken after the dramatic win, with the reporter stating that Willumsson was ‘heavily involved’ in his team turning around a two-goal deficit to rise to the very top of the League One perch.
Davies will have been overjoyed with his team’s confidence to bounce back in the manner they did, as the Blues continue take the league by storm with the main aim of returning straight back up to the Championship with swagger.
