Birmingham City suffered a seventh defeat in 11 games as Leicester City extended their lead at the top of the Sky Bet Championship with a narrow 3-2 victory at St Andrew's on Monday. Blues, who created plenty of chances on the night, were brave to press high up the field throughout but it didn't quite pay off as the Foxes were devastating on the counter-attack.
Wayne Rooney's daring approach made for a good game – especially in the first half – but Leicester's pace on the transition was effective. Jordan James netted an impressive double for the hosts but Stephy Mavididi's brace and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall's season sixth goal of the season were enough to sink Blues. The result means Rooney's side remain merely six points above the relegation zone.
Birmingham came out the blocks with clear intent from the offset, displaying more urgency, control and directness than Leicester. Early problems were caused for the away side as Jay Stansfield and Siriki Dembele made some dangerous runs into the channels The latter forced an important low save from Foxes goalkeeper Mads Hermansen in the eighth minute, before Krystian Bielik' saw a header tipped over the crossbar just 60 seconds later.
A dramatic phase of play handed Leicester the lead out of nowhere, however, as Foxes defender James Justin tried to clear away a Blues corner but thundered the ball off his own post. Directly off the woodwork, it was bizarrely fired about 40 yards up the pitch and Abdul Fatawu was in the right place at the right time to take on the only Blues man back – Ivan Sunjic. Stephy Mavididi, there in support, was found in space and the winger dinked a clever effort over John Ruddy for 1-0.
It didn't take long for the determined Birmingham to strike back as Jordan James showed superb composure to equalise. It came from a counter of Blues' own as Stansfield played Dembele down the right and the winger worked the space well to find Sunjic. It was then passed beautifully through to James, who took one touch before feeding the ball into the bottom left corner for 1-1.
Rooney's side looked confident and brave after their goal, stepping very high up the field but yet another transition cost them as Leicester were able to counter and score once again, for 2-1. Juninho Bacuna was dispossessed in the attacking third and Leicester were merciless as they immediately set Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall free down the left. The Leicester attacking midfielder had the coolest head in the house as he took the ball around Ruddy and passed it into an empty net.
Blues will have been proud of their first half performance in an attacking sense but their defensive frailties mounted further immediately after the break. The away side came out firing and rather quickly scored their third to make it 3-1, giving Birmingham a mountain to climb. Mavididi got the better of Sunjic out on the left flank before curling a shot into the far corner, albeit via a deflection off Emanuel Aiwu. Fatawu then had a glorious opportunity to make it four from around 10 yards but he missed the target.
Rooney made a triple substitution in the 71st minute, bringing on Koji Miyoshi, Oliver Burke and Romelle Donovan to freshen things up in attack. The changes made an instant impact as Miyoshi played in James and the 19-year-old gave Birmingham a fighting chance by reducing the deficit to just one goal. James showed great determination to keep hold of the ball just inside the Leicester area before scooping it into the far corner via a deflection. Knowing the score had been narrowed to 3-2, St Andrew's was roared into life.
Blues completed their set of five personnel switches by bringing Scott Hogan and Lukas Jutkiewicz into play. There were a few promising break-aways as Rooney's men pushed for a second equaliser of the game but Leicester were able to hang on. It was a terrific effort from Birmingham – and far better than just sitting in before inevitably being unstuck by a potential title-winning team. There were of course some errors, but the effort levels can't be criticised a great deal. Here are our player ratings.
ATTENDANCE: 20,344.
1. John Ruddy - 5
Dinked for 1-0 and then was rounded a little too easily for 2-1. Couldn’t do a great deal about Mavidid’s second goal as it was deflected.
2. Emanuel Aiwu - 5
Aiwu slotted in at right-back and had a mixed game as he was sometimes superb to anticipate loose balls but looked shaky in possession, often giving it away. The Austrian was also given the run-around by Mavididi, leading to numerous clear-cut Leicester opportunities.
3. Marc Roberts - 6
Roberts didn’t stand out for a great deal of individual errors but could’ve done better to support an under-pressure Aiwu. His passing was rather mediocre, too, but the long throws were very effective to give Blues a different outlet.
4. Dion Sanderson - 7
The skipper displayed good physicality to shrug off Fatawu and Daka on a number of occasions. He made some divine tackles too, notably one last-ditch sliding challenge to deny Daka an almost certain goal in the 31st minute. Sometimes his darting runs forward were costly, however, as the Foxes were able to exploit the space.