Birmingham City head coach Chris Davies admitted he had been wary of Lincoln City’s threat before their 3-1 victory at the ProAmpac Stadium, but felt his side were deserving winners despite a physical and sometimes controversial encounter.
The Blues secured all three points thanks to two goals from August Priske and an excellent Alex Cochrane strike, with Tom Bayliss replying for the Imps. It was a competitive afternoon, with both teams creating opportunities and several contentious decisions, most notably a first-half challenge by Ethan Laird that caught Ben House in the face. Birmingham also survived some early pressure, with Mikkel Ladefoged hitting the post and goalkeeper James Beadle producing an excellent save to deny Deji Elerewe.
Davies admitted he had been impressed by our 4-1 victory against Burnley the previous weekend and knew his side would face a difficult afternoon.
“Really pleased,” he told press after the game.
“A tough place to come. I was wary of the threats that Lincoln have, especially on the back of beating Burnley 4-1 here last week. I thought they were excellent in that match and knew that we were going to have to be good at a lot of things in the game.
“But I thought we were worth the three points today. I said last week I think we weren’t and the other team were better than us, but today we were the better team and we deserved our win.”
One of the game’s major talking points came in the first half when Laird caught House with a high boot, prompting furious protests from the Lincoln bench and a yellow card for the Birmingham defender. Davies felt the incident was accidental, while also acknowledging that the direct nature of Lincoln’s play contributed to a physical contest in which challenges and collisions were inevitable.
“Yeah, it did. It just bounced. There’s no malice in it. It was one of those things. There wasn’t anything much in it, but it just bounces up and he tries to control it, basically.”
“It was competitive. A lot of bouncing balls, second balls, set pieces, long balls and direct play, so you’re going to get that. There’s collisions and everything, but they all seem in one piece at the moment.”
Birmingham also had opportunities to add to their tally, with Jay Stansfield denied by a goal-line clearance from Elerewe during the second half. Davies raised a question about the validity of the clearance, although he stressed that he had not seen a replay and was more interested in Stansfield’s overall contribution than his failure to score.
“Yeah, it was off the line. Was it a shoulder? Was it an arm? I don’t know. I haven’t seen it.
“But Jay was excellent again. I say to Jay, I judge his performances on being a number 10, being a midfield player in a game like this. That’s much more than goals.”
The result gave Birmingham a winning start to a busy three-game week and ended Lincoln’s hopes of building immediately on their impressive victory over Burnley. Davies was complimentary about the progress the Imps have made, suggesting that visiting teams will continue to find life difficult at Sincil Bank this season.
“Coming to Lincoln, they’ve been in great form. They did an incredible job getting out of League One and they’ll be a real handful here for teams, so for us it’s a very good win.”
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