The Imps were beaten at the Bank despite creating a number of good opportunities, particularly in the first half. Mikkel Ladefoged struck the post early on, while Birmingham goalkeeper James Beadle produced an outstanding save to deny Deji Elerewe before the break. August Priske scored twice for the visitors, with Tom Bayliss briefly giving City hope before Alex Cochrane’s excellent strike sealed the points for Chris Davies’ side.
In his post-match interview, Chris was surprisingly blunt about finding positives in the performance. He acknowledged that there were positives in City’s attacking play, but felt they counted for little when the team conceded the sort of opportunities that Birmingham were able to exploit.
“I think if you give away the goals that we gave away, then I’m sure that when we watch it back there’ll be loads of nice bits, Gaz, but unfortunately, if you give them goals away against that type of team, a team that’s bang in form, a team that’s obviously spent a lot of money putting a good team together, then the good bits don’t really matter too much,” he told written press.
“So we’ve got to make sure that we get back to not giving up big chances. We’ve got to get back to being incredibly hard to beat. We’ve been brilliant at that over the last couple of seasons, and we’ve just got to make sure that we double down on that stuff before we start looking at the prettier stuff around their goal, where we still thought we were a bit of a threat first half, most definitely thought we were a big threat.
“But as I said, if you give up big chances against good teams, then ultimately you’re going to get punished.”
The manner in which Birmingham scored raised questions about whether the goals came from individual mistakes or problems with City’s collective organisation. However, Chris was reluctant to apportion blame before reviewing the footage, insisting that he and fellow head coach Tom Shaw would first examine whether the players had been given the right instructions and structure.
“We need to go back and look at it. First and foremost, me and Tom have to make sure that we’ve given the right structure, as always. We’re never going to sit here and blame players.
“We’ve got to make sure that we gave them the right structure, whether it’s a goal kick, whether it’s open-play stuff. And then if we haven’t communicated that properly, that’s the next part of the process, to make sure that they understood. And then if it’s execution, then we’ll help the players with that.
“So, no, I don’t know. I haven’t looked back at the chances yet or the goals, so we’ll have a look. But as always, we’ll look at ourselves first and see if we could have helped the players more.”
The defeat brought City back down to earth following last weekend’s emphatic 4-1 victory over Burnley, with Birmingham proving much more clinical in front of goal. There were encouraging moments going forward, but Chris’s immediate priority is clear: restoring the organisation and defensive solidity that have been fundamental to the Imps’ success over the last two seasons.
Bars are scaled to the best figure in this match, and each rank is against the players who actually registered that stat — "3rd/12" is third of the twelve who managed one. This is a within-match ranking, not a league-wide one, which a single match cannot give. Radar axes are scaled the same way, and are left out for goalkeepers, whose near-zero attacking figures would draw a meaningless dot.
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