On Tuesday night, Birmingham City defeated Stevenage to take a 14-point lead at the top of League One.
The Blues won 2-1 at St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park thanks to another penalty kick from Kieran Dowell and the season’s first goal from Paik Seung-ho. In the last minute of stoppage time, Stevenage was given a consolation by Jake Young.
With 11 games remaining, the Blues are up to 82 points, and 90 points has been enough to secure promotion to the Championship in all but one of League One’s recent seasons. Dowell opened the scoring in B9 from the penalty spot for the second consecutive game. The on-loan Rangers player took the penalty instead of Jay Stansfield, and he sent goalkeeper Murphy Cooper the wrong way. Albons Sampsted, making his first league start for the Blues, deserves credit for winning the penalty after he and Stansfield combined neatly inside the box before being pulled back by Louis Thompson directly in front of referee Alan Young. Sampsted proceeded to torment Stevenage down Blues’ right, whipping in two delicious crosses that were not attacked. Chris Davies would have expected his attackers to fling themselves at such excellent deliveries.
Among those who did not challenge Sampsted’s deliveries was Emil Hansson, and the Swede did not return after halftime. Stansfield moved to the left wing, and Alfie May took his position.
In his first appearance, May saved a corner and set up Paik to score the second goal for the Blues. With a cunning turn away from his man, Paik struck the bottom corner with a left-footed drive from the box’s edge.
Every Blues supporter wants May to score, and Stevenage right-back Nick Freeman unintentionally gave him the opportunity to do so 17 minutes from the end. The ball soared into The Tilton after May’s attempt to loft it over the charging Cooper was too strong.
After the Blues failed to handle a long free-kick into their box, substitute Young scored a clean finish across Ryan Allsop to give Stevenage the victory in stoppage time. The points, however, remained in Birmingham.
Early on, Jamie Reid cut inside from the left and let fly, but the goalie made a wise stop. From then on, he kicked well and did not use his hands very much.
