Birmingham City Close On Top Two With Stockport Success
Birmingham City celebrated the launch of its new partnership with Vertu with a crucial victory against Stockport County that closed the gap to the top two in EFL League One.
The Blues went into the game against a side that had won three games on the bounce keen to close the gap to Wycombe Wanderers and Wrexham – both of whom had played more games than the Midlanders.
Fresh from progressing to the third round of the FA Cup with a weekend win on the road at Blackpool, Birmingham had an early scare with a long ball forwards from Louie Barry picked out Will Collar – who beat ‘keeper Ryan Allsop but saw his shot come back off the bar.
Birmingham took advantage of that let off however and took the lead after 25 minutes, thanks in part to a loose throw out from visiting ‘keeper Ben Hinchcliffe.
His throw out to a defender was intercepted by Keshi Anderson and when he crossed the ball into the box, Alfie May struck a first-time shot that deflected off a defender into the net.
The same pair then combined ten minutes later to double the lead, with Anderson being played in down the right hand side by Jay Stansfield before he sent the ball into the middle for May to slide the ball home.
Allsop pulled off a smart double save just before the break to allow Birmingham to retain the two goal advantage and that would prove to be the best chance that the visitors would have.
Stansfield could have added a third with an acrobatic effort in the second half but Birmingham closed out the game with ease and have now moved to within three points of leaders Wycombe with a game in hand.
Birmingham are also only one point behind Wrexham for the second automatic promotion spot having played two games less.