To quote the Carpenters, we’ve only just begun.
That’s what it feels like for Blues right now.
Dominant, back-to-back 4-0 victories at St. Andrew’s have injected confidence, belief and optimism amid all and sundry.
And with only a third of the season gone, who is to say Blues can’t now hit a groove and become a consistent, authoritative Championship side?
The league is wide open and Blues have now moved to within two points of the play-off zone.
There have been various trials and tribulations up to this point of the drubbings of Portsmouth and then in-form Millwall, who had been sitting in third place.
It may just have all clicked over the two 90 minutes as the side played with a vibrancy, sustained aggression and forward-thinking mindset, lapses in concentration and costly errors have been eradicated and set-pieces woes have been addressed; new signings James Beadle, Phil Neumann, Tommy Doyle, Marvin Ducksch and Patrick Roberts look to have been assimilated and found their feet, making telling impacts.
Then there’s the revelation of the non-stop Tomoki Iwata as a nominal right-back but popping up everywhere, the re-energising of Jay Stansfield with Ducksch easing the burden up top, Paik Seung-ho’s renewed goalscoring prowess – the South Korean star unlocking the floodgates with the opener in both games.
Blues appeared to be the clinical machine of last season in League One, only with more frills to them and a relentlessness.
Asked what the last two performances and results could do for the team, Chris Davies told BluesTV: “It reinforces who we are, how we play, what we do and we can be successful.
“We’ve won away, won at home, kept clean sheets, come back in games when we’ve been down. We have experienced a bit of everything this season. Red cards, injuries in the warm-ups, all sorts of things. We’ve had to face it all.
“What this shows us is that we are capable.
“We’ve had some difficult days this season, some challenges, but we’ve come through them together and it’s culminated in two excellent performances and wins for us.
“But we have learned (this) already and I will be reminding the players how hard this league is.
“As I said at the weekend, when you win one game it’s just one game. When you lose one game, it’s just one game. That is football.
“You just have to stay calm, learn from every game – win, lose or draw – and move onto the next one.”
The Blues manager insisted before the Portsmouth fixture that Blues weren’t ‘far away’ from becoming a very good side, one that could challenge, at this level.
He was particularly pleased that Blues followed up the Pompey victory with more of the same, four days later.
“When you’ve won 4-0, subconsciously you can come off it. Rest on your laurels, thinking ‘we’ll be all right tonight’. But I thought there was a relentlessness about us again.
“We showed a hunger and desire to compete, to play with intensity, to go after the opposition again.
“Millwall are very well organised side, seasoned at this level, and very rarely let you around their goal.
“I saw them a lot in the build-up to this match and I was aware that they are quite energetic defensively and they are good at pressing – solid and well organised.
“So to play as we did round to their box and score the goals we did – it could have been more – and get a clean sheet was exceptional.”
The various of ways and means for Davies was heartening: “We have looked very dangerous in the games and we’ve scored a variety.
“We’ve scored set-pieces, counter-attacks and a breaking up the pitch, we’ve scored with slower build-up and then quickening up and crossing, so there’s been a bit of everything which is really important because it means we’ve got multiple weapons to use to create chances.”
It’s Middlesbrough next for Blues on Saturday, before the international break. It could be an ideal time to further close the gap on the season’s early pacesetters.
