Chris Davies explains controversial Birmingham City decision as injury blow evident
The latest Birmingham City team news and reaction after the 1-0 defeat at Bristol City.
Chris Davies has revealed why winger Demarai Gray did not start away at Bristol City on Saturday afternoon, a decision that surprised many when the lineups were announced.
Blues fell to a fourth defeat in their last seven away fixtures, continuing a difficult run on the road. Sinclair Armstrong’s first-half composed finish was enough to secure all three points for the Robins, who are now up to fourth in the Championship.
Birmingham, meanwhile, are down in 15th, four points adrift from the play-off positions. As has been the case so often this season, Davies’ men dominated possession but were unable to do enough with it. Blues simply haven’t been clinical enough in front of goal and it’s been a real problem.
Controversial Birmingham City decision explained
There are no guarantees that Birmingham would have managed a better result at Bristol had Gray been named in the starting XI, but there perhaps would have been a better chance. The former England under-21 international came on in the second half and made a great impact.
Gray narrowly missed from a Lewis Koumas delivery before firing in a dangerous cross of his own that had to be cleared from the goalline. Fellow impact substitute Kyogo Furuhashi also failed to score when presented with a decent opportunity.
But it turns out Davies couldn’t have started Gray even if he wanted to as he wasn’t at full sharpness. “Demarai has just been struggling with a little bit of an injury since the (Preston) game,” Davies explained to BBC Radio WM.
“He was a bit of a doubt for this match, whether he would even be able to make the bench. Thankfully he woke up and he was feeling better. We were aware that in our third game in a week, there was the possibility that some might not have their usual zip,” Davies continued.
“The boys that came on gave us a little bit of a zip. Kyogo has a moment in pretty much every game that he’s on the pitch and he had another one off the goalkeeper dropping the ball. The subs tried and we continued to push. In the end we had three strikers and we were trying to throw everything at them but it wasn’t enough.”