Football League World
·26 November 2024
Football League World
·26 November 2024
City were unexpectedly beaten by Gareth Ainsworth's Shrews.
Chris Davies has griped about Shrewsbury Town's second goal after their 3-2 win over Birmingham City on Saturday.
It's unlikely that there will be a bigger upset again this season than the Salops beating the favourites to win League One.
It was Gareth Ainsworth's first match in charge of the club, and his first since being sacked by Queens Park Rangers last season. He was up against the biggest juggernaut, financially, that this division has ever seen, and he managed to overcome them.
Even though the result and the feeling that Shrewsbury and their supporters will have had afterwards will be stored in the memory bank, the performance which led to it was by no means an elegant one.
A set-piece and two fairly scrappy counter-attack goals were what put Town over the top, much to the disappointment of the visiting manager.
Davies wasn't pleased with the manner in which his City side let in their second and third goals against Shrewsbury. They were caught on the break and were unable to stop the Salops. It was John Marquis' first-half tap-in that most frustrated the Birmingham boss.
"I think the second goal is a really poor goal," admitted Davies, via Birmingham Live. "We very rarely have conceded a goal on the counter-attack and there was things within that goal that I really didn’t like. I haven’t seen that from us.
"And the third goal was a ball over the top, a cross and finish. They are difficult goals to accept and to watch. Defensively we gave very little away and we rank up there out of all the clubs in the country, we typically give very little away. The problem has been making sure we score enough goals."
In complete contrast to Davies, Ainsworth was thrilled with the way his players managed the game, and he even hinted at some stark admissions from the opposition's players.
"The players were committed. They went for every tackle, header and they never stopped running. It is not surprising that some of the players were going down injured and going off with tightness and they were knackered.
"I said to everyone they will come off that pitch with nothing left and I am proud to say that I was true to my word and the boys were sensational.
"I said in the week that we slightly changed formation for Birmingham as we have massive respect and they are a brilliant side.
"The result is almost a by-product of what we gave out there. The boys deserved the win."
City will be rightfully angry with how they went about things against Shrewsbury; they were simply not good enough compared to the standards that they have set for themselves.
These things can happen though. It was, arguably, the worst time to play against Town, given the boost of Ainsworth being brought in, so that goes someway to explaining it.
There may have been a bit of complacency there too. Regardless of what caused the upset, Birmingham need to use it as a reminder for the rest of the season that, just because they have more money and better players than everyone else, they won't be able to just breeze by all their competitors.
Even with the shock result taking them down to fourth in the league, the Blues are the overwhelming favourites to lift the third tier title.