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Birmingham City 2 Stevenage 1 – League One player ratings

Free hit is an annoying phrase but that’s what people expected when Stevenage visited Birmingham City.

And they will probably look at the final score of 2-1 and say they were lucky to get one.

But Boro did at least put up a fight in the second half and while it wasn’t always a full on, all out assault, that effort should be applauded.

Here’s how I rated the players in the League One clash at St Andrews.

League One player ratings

Birmingham City (1) 2 Stevenage (0) 1

Murphy Cooper – 6

Maybe could have done better with the second. Did come through some players but I think he had some view of it, was just moving slightly to his right as the shot came in. Good block in the first half to deny Stansfield.

Dan Butler – 7

A Birmingham tactic was to play diagonal balls and drop them over the head of the full-back. He stood up to it fairly well and while there were some crosses, they weren’t really dangerous.

Carl Piergianni – 6

Limped out slightly with a bang to the knee but shouldn’t be much to worry about. For the remainder of the game he was his usual solid self, to the point that for all their corners, most were headed away.

Nick Freeman – 7

Like Butler, they targeted him by playing diagonal balls and like Butler, he stood up to it really well. Bar one mistake in the second half which should have been punished, he is proving to be a more than capable full-back. Man of the match for me.

Dan Kemp – 6

One lovely run in the second half, saw him wriggle into space and only a deflection took it away from goal. Couldn’t really get into good space but often only needs one moment.

Charlie Goode – 7

Has such good reading of the game, a couple of times he came across as a sweeper to great effect, making tackles and clearances. Decent again.

Jamie Reid – 6

Wonderful move early on and a great shot almost gave Boro the greatest of starts. Spent a lot of the game after that defending which doesn’t highlight his strengths. 

Dan Phillips – 7

Tackled like a demon and wound the home crowd up. Was booked but was nothing in it for me. Seems to be playing with a lot of confidence at the minute.

Louis Thompson – 5

Got caught wrong side for the penalty because he was slow to react. Unlike him. Tackled as usual for the remainder but didn’t have his best evening.

Eli King – 6

A great bit of defending in the second half to head out for a corner and showed some good moments in the second half when he is allowed to go forward. Needs to do that more often.

Brandon Hanlan – 5

Didn’t quite come off for him. Worked hard but his support was often quite a way behind him, making it incredibly difficult.

Subs – Louis Appere, Elliott List, Harvey White, Dan Sweeney, Jake Young

Young got the goal and it was a fine finish and there were some good moments but not all of them came off.

Birmingham stand-out players

There were many but Iwata was the stand-out one, really pulled the strings.

Overall

There’s not much you can say. This was always going to be tough and I never had the confidence that I had when we were at Wrexham.

Birmingham are a class apart in this division but I felt Stevenage could have really gone after them, and then maybe things would have been different.

Penalty was soft but then that’s what happens when you get caught wrong side and put an arm on a modern-day footballer. If you don’t concede that, then again, it could be a completely different story.

Still need a spark on Saturday and a more complete 90-minute performance, although Reading will be flying after their win over Wrexham tonight.