Blues have got off to an encouraging start to life in the Championship again.
Back-to-back victories after the opening night draw against Ipswich Town have kept the momentum from the record-breaking League One promotion campaign going.
Paik Seung-ho’s goal was enough to send Oxford United packing on Saturday at St. Andrew’s in an encounter that had familiar elements about it.
Blues found Oxford competitive and obdurate in the opening exchanges. It wasn’t until Davies used a tactical ‘timeout’ that Blues tweaked things a little and really got on top of the game.
That, in itself, was ironic as Ryan Allsop went down and signalled for attention to a leg issue. We saw this so often last season with Blues frustratingly looking on.
Paik scored in the 40th minute and Blues were good value, having pushed higher onto Oxford’s back five.
They maintained control on their terms, keeping and moving the ball to find the gaps and opportunities.
It was reminiscent of many fixtures from last season and only when Gary Rowett threw some caution to the wind late on did Oxford try to emerge from encampment that Blues forced them into.
Ethan Laird was excellent out of position at left-back. Dynamic and forceful, his run and pull back set up Paik for his low, sidefooted drive.
Paik was, well, Paik and Demarai Gray’s example-setting quality again shone.
Davies, naturally, was happy afterwards.
“It was a pleasing result. It was a really pleasing performance again I’m encouraged by the way we played.
“The game looked exactly as I thought it would do in terms of stylistically, both teams, and I thought we got good control, we obviously dominated the ball again.
“But I likes us. We followed the right kind of process against that set up, how to work the ball, when to play forward, when to play around, and we created good chances, it could have really been more than one-nil.
“But when it’s one-nil, the game’s always open a little bit, but overall performance-wise that was what I was really looking for because you know the results will follow that. I thought it was strong again.”
In his post-match press conference, Davies was asked about the similarities to 2024/25 and the fact that Blues might have added extra spice to their mix since.
Latest signing Lewis Koumas was introduced to the crowd just before kick-off.
“I think it did follow a similar sort of pattern to many games we had last season and yes, I mean we’ve got a mixture of players that have been with us, players that are new, we like to think we’ve brought in a bit of quality to help us in breaking teams down.
“I thought we did create not sort of half chances, some good ones that could have put us out of sight. But the overall play was encouraging.”
Attention also focused on Kyogo Furuhashi, who put wide a shot after Willum Willumsson had played him clean through and also missed a header in front of goal, from a Gray cross.
“I said to him at half-time and I’ll maintain I genuinely never worry when they miss chances. I worry when they don’t get them and you can’t think ‘When was the last time he had a chance? He’s a striker, he should be getting chances.’
“It’s when they get them and they miss them, I always think ‘That’ll come because they know how to score goals’.
“They know how much to get on the ball or the technique they need to use. It’s very instinctive, it’s very natural, especially for someone like Kyogo who scored consistently for a long time. So I really never worry about it.
“I just remind him to continue because that touch will work sometime soon and that will be a goal, but it’s getting the chances that I’m looking at and he’s getting them.”
Kyogo also spurned chances in the Carabao Cup victory over Sheffield United after netting an early tap-in.
His hoisted attempt that came back off the post resulted in Jay Stansfield’s goal against Ipswich and he also had an instinctive lob harshly ruled out for a foul, however.
Kyogo’s confidence remains high, said the manager.
“He’s playing with belief, I think he’s enjoyed his time a lot since he’s been here, he gives a lot to the team as well if you watch how much he sprints and presses and makes a lot of runs in behind, he occupies defenders by his movement.
“If you leave him one by one, you’re always at risk because he’s very sharp and quick and he makes clever runs, so therefore often it’s two against one, then if it’s two against one, then someone else should be free, so, he does a lot for the team and I’ve got no doubt.
“And I think he’s also an experienced player, he’s not a young lad on his first club or anything like that. He knows the game and he knows that he just needs to continue and the and the goals will come.”
Footnote: Blues are now 27 league games unbeaten at home, having scored 53 goals and conceding just 12.
