Stoke City 1-0 Birmingham City: FLW reports as high-flying Potters edge past Blues | OneFootball

FLW reports from the Bet365 Stadium for this Championship clash

Stoke City returned to winning ways and the Championship top two with a controlled 1-0 victory against Birmingham City at the Bet365 Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Bosun Lawal's 21st-minute header proved the difference between the two Midlands outfits during a first half which was dominated by Mark Robins' side, before Blues were unable to find an equaliser during a frenetic second period.

Chris Davies made plenty of changes to his lineup after a 2-0 defeat to Leicester City before the international break, but they came to no avail as the Birmingham boss suffered back-to-back league defeats for the first time in his managerial career.

Stoke City 1-0 Birmingham City

After a frantic opening 10 minutes, Sorba Thomas looked to continue his fine form before the two-week break, almost picking out Divin Mubama with an inch-perfect cross before a smart intervention from Christoph Klarer before Lawal's subsequent effort was easily gathered by Ryan Allsop.

Million Manhoef then showed Alex Cochrane a clean pair of heels, with Lewis Baker picking out Mubama inside the six-yard box. However, the Potters' neat attacking play was quickly thwarted by Ethan Laird.

Allsop was then on hand to deny Mubama with a smart save following a deft flick from the Manchester City loanee, but the keeper was powerless seconds later as Lawal netted his first goal for Stoke with a looping header into the top-right hand corner to give his side a deserved lead.

Birmingham could count themselves fortunate to not be two down just two minutes later, with Thomas springing the offside trap before the Welshman's fizzing effort brushed the post.

Davies' men looked to forge their first real opportunity of the game after 35 minutes, but neither Jay Stansfield nor Tommy Doyle could find their feet in time in order to trouble Viktor Johansson after a low cross from Laird.

Lawal's strong all-round performance continued six minutes before half-time, with the 22-year-old putting the whole of his frame in front of a close-range Stansfield effort following another cutback from Laird.

After a below-par performance in the first period, Blues' talisman had yet another opportunity after 51 minutes, although his latest effort was dragged wide of Johansson's left-hand post. Demarai Gray was then given space to drive towards the box before a curling effort was well blocked.

A triple substitution from Davies saw Bright Osayi-Samuel, Lewis Koumas and Marvin Ducksch enter the fray, with the former Stoke loanee looking to make an instant impact although a speculative effort two minutes after his introduction caused the Potters' Swedish keeper no issues.

With 15 minutes remaining, Koumas was able to pick out the onrushing Gray, whose mistimed volley fell straight into Johansson's grasp.

Robins' men had the chance to put daylight between themselves and Blues with eight minutes to go, with another key intervention from Klarer denying Mubama the chance to get on the end of a fizzing Thomas cross following neat work from substitute Bae Junho.

Birmingham's afternoon was summed up three minutes later as fellow substitute Marc Leonard fired high and wide from the edge of the box with his first meaningful touch.

As the clock ticked into five minutes of stoppage time, Stoke avoided a late scare as a low cross was almost diverted into his own net by Ben Wilmot as Blues continued to push for a last-gasp equaliser, with the hosts also seeing appeals for a penalty waved away as Thomas fell under pressure from Klarer.

Stoke were able to hold out though, recording their fourth win within the opening five encounters and returning to second, whilst Blues' second successive defeat sees them end the day in 11th.

Player Ratings

Stoke City

Viktor Johansson - 6.5

Junior Tchamadeu - 7

Bosun Lawal - 8

Ben Wilmot - 7

Aaron Cresswell - 7 (Bocat 92" - N/A)

Ben Pearson - 6.5 (Seko 82" - 6)

Tomas Rigo - 7 (Junho 70" - 6)

Million Manhoef - 7.5 (Cisse 92" - N/A)

Lewis Baker - 7

Sorba Thomas - 7

Divin Mubama - 7

Unused Subs: Jack Bonham, Ashley Phillips, Makysm Talovierov, Jamie Donley, Robert Bozenik

Birmingham City

Ryan Allsop - 6

Ethan Laird - 6.5 (Osayi-Samuel 59" - 6)

Phil Neumann - 6.5 (Leonard 84" - 6)

Christoph Klarer - 6.5

Alex Cochrane - 6

Seung-Ho Paik - 6

Tomoki Iwata - 6.5

Patrick Roberts - 6 (Koumas 60" - 6)

Tommy Doyle - 6 (Ducksch 59" - 6)

Demarai Gray - 6.5

Jay Stansfield - 6 (Furuhashi 79" - 6)

Unused Subs: James Beadle, Eiran Cashin, Jack Robinson, Lyndon Dykes

Stoke City vs Birmingham City Attendance

The attendance at the Bet365 Stadium for this Championship game was 24,676.

This included a sold-out away allocation of 3,381 Blues supporters.

Mark Robins reacts as Stoke City see off Birmingham City

Addressing the media post-match, Robins was full of praise for his side, stating: "I'm absolutely delighted with it (the performance)."

"We're playing against a really good team, it was a tight game. We started off really brightly, the support and energy inside the stadium was so good.

"When you've lost 50 percent of your squad to international games, and they've come back at varying points of the week, it's difficult to get the work in. But, the last two days have been really good, they've been focused," he explained.

"They needed to be, because you're coming up against a good team, a good coach, (they're) really well coached, loads of momentum behind them, the financial backing and future plans. It's a great story for them.

"For us, we just needed to start like we started in the previous games apart from the West Brom game, because the West Brom game was really below-par for us. I don't want to be saying that too often," Robins added.

"For today, the start we made, the intensity and quality we showed - because there was some really good attacking football - I was pleased with it.

"The only thing, I would say, we need to be more clinical, and that's the only criticism, because we need to be better."

Chris Davies reacts as Birmingham City defeated at Bet365 Stadium

Speaking post-match to the press, Davies' initial summary of a frustrating 90 minutes began: "I thought it was a tough match, and I knew it coming to Stoke, everybody knows that."

"I think we started the game too slowly," he claimed. "The reason for the defeat is because we were too slow to win duels, second balls and really impose ourselves in what was clearly going to be a challenging start away at Stoke.

"That culminated in them scoring a goal from a set-piece, which was really disappointing," Davies added. "A little bit like our last match, we're on the back foot early because of that.

"From that point on, I think we started to grow back into the game. By half-time, we were looking more like ourselves, and we continued as soon as the whistle blew for the second, all the way through to the end.

But, we couldn't create enough meaningful chances. It's been a little bit of a familiar story in the last two games," Davies explained.

"We've had the lion's share of possession and a certain level of dominance and arriving in the final-third a lot, but not creating enough clear-cut chances off of that - the biggest being Jay's (Stansfield) in the first half that was blocked well and one from Dimmy (Gray) in the second that was decent volleyed chance.