Birmingham City’s new hero Jay Stansfield pays tribute to late father after ‘best goal’ of his career

Birmingham City’s latest hero Jay Stansfield paid tribute to his late father after scoring a dramatic 95th-minute winner to beat Plymouth Argyle by two goals to one on Saturday afternoon.

Coming off the bench and making an instant impact with some effective chance creation, many Blues fans would’ve been content with his involvement as it was, but Stansfield had other ideas.

After surviving a second-half onslaught from Argyle, it looked as if Birmingham were going to draw 1-1 but Stansfield, just two days after signing on loan from Fulham, scored a wonderful debut goal.

The 20-year-old reacted quickest to a loose ball on the edge of the Plymouth area and used some quick-thinking to flick the ball over a trailing defender’s leg before striking beautifully on the volley.

As soon as the ball rippled the net, St Andrew’s Stadium went wild as Blues secured their fourth consecutive win in all competitions and their 10th point out of an available 12 in the Championship.

Stansfield, delighted in the press room after what he described as his best-ever goal, was sure to speak about the inspiration he takes from his late footballing father, Adam, who passed away in 2010.

“I couldn’t have dreamed of a better debut. It doesn’t get much better, especially against Plymouth. He scored many good goals – my goal would be to score as many goals as he did and become a hero like he did,” Stansfield said.

“I think of him every day and the last couple of weeks I could’ve done with him and a bit of advice. I had so many teams coming in and I didn’t know which one to go to. It’s quite tough deciding if I was moving away from home, moving up the country, down the country.

“But I’ve got all my family around me. I’ve got my stepdad who helps massively and also my mum, who doesn’t know much about football but gives me lots of advice in a family sense,” Stansfield continued.

Having only made the big move to the West Midlands just days ago, Stansfield will head back to Exeter for the rest of the weekend before joining up with the Birmingham squad again on Monday.

John Eustace’s side are back in action midweek as they play host to Cardiff City in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday.