City suffer home loss to Birmingham

Match Report: Exeter City 0-2 Birmingham City

Exeter City slipped to another defeat to extend their run of up and down form in the league, with a 2-0 defeat at home to Birmingham.

It was a terrible display on the part of the Grecians, but can be excused given the immense difference in budgets between the two clubs. Tomoki Iwata’s early volley broke the deadlock and was the games highlight, but it was Exeter-born Jay Stansfield, former City player and son of the clubs late former striker Adam, who put his emotions aside on his return to St James Park, stepping up to convert a penalty late on.

Birmingham’s Alfie May should have broken the deadlock within a few minutes, as Keshi Anderson cut out City keeper Joe Whitworths scuffed clearance to play the striker in. May turned and fired a low shot from 6 or so yards out, but Whitworth extended a leg to block Mays shot and atone for his earlier error.

Blues next chance would come 10 minutes later, and they capitalised this time, albeit from a much harder chance than Mays. Having been subjected to some sustained pressure for the first ten minutes or so, City finally failed to clear their lines and left Tomoki Iwata with a loose ball on the edge of the penalty area. The Japanese midfielder duly dispatched the chance with a beautiful low volley which had nestled in the bottom right-hand corner of Joe Whitworths goal before the young keeper had a chance to react.

Neither side seemed to be sparked into action by the goal, rather Birmingham assumed a natural dominance over Exeter, with a well-maintained intensity. Despite failing to create much throughout the rest of the first half (save a scuffed Keshi Andersen shot and other various scrambles in the box), the visitors pinned City into their own half and didn’t allow a single shot on Ryan Allsop’s goal before half time.

Where the Blues had been dominant in the first half, it was a level up in the second, with Willumsson and Iwata running the midfield for the visitors, and finding clever passes forward at any given opportunity. The Exeter strike force of Magennis and Bird were isolated in comparison to Birmingham’s well supplied front line, with the latter being replaced by Sonny Cox within an hour. In fairness to the Exeter backline, they didn’t allow Birmingham to convert their complete control to any clear-cut chances until the last few minutes of the game, despite the ball spending the majority of it’s time in the Grecians defensive third.  

But by simple law of averages, City were always unlikely to fend off that much pressure without making another mistake, and it was full back Ilmari Niskanen who slipped up, in more ways than one, diving in on Keshi Anderson in the box in an attempt to clear the ball and conceding a penalty as he did so.

It was the centre of attention Jay Stansfield who stepped up, and, adjacent to the home stand named for his late father and fellow Exeter legend Adam, powered his penalty past Whitworth. Being a former Grecian and a Devon native, Stansfield’s celebrations were muted, but the away fans certainly weren’t,memphatically celebrating the win which takes their side up to third, and leaves Exeter with no win in three and languishing in 11th, with all their early season momentum seemingly gone.