Seven Heaven for Bluenoses as they advance to the knockout stages

Image Credit: BCFC

Birmingham City certainly showed their prowess as they hit the young cottagers for seven to progress to the knockout stages of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy. Blues manager Chris Davis made seven changes heading into the match giving a start to Bailey Peacock-Farrell on his 28th birthday.

It was the hosts who started the brighter of the two teams with chances falling to Taylor Gardner-Hickman and Dion Sanderson inside the opening ten minutes. The deadlock was broken inside the 17th minute as Jay Stansfield scored against his former club after latching on to a ball that was flicked behind the defence by Willum Willumsson before the front man sent the ball under the American goalkeeper.

It wasn’t long before the visiting side levelled the scoring. As fireworks lit up the sky above the stadium, there were fireworks on the pitch as a rocket of a shot flew from the boot of Martial Godo before the ball nestled into the top right corner.

Just before the half-time whistle, Stansfield doubled his tally for the day with a slightly under hit strike that hit the post before crossing the line.

Half Time 2-1

A dominating second half display saw the hosts convert another five efforts. Throughout the game the Bluenoses would treat the home fans to 13 shots on target meaning they were able to convert just over half. The first goal of the half came after just 10 minutes when Ayumu Yokoyama fired the ball past Borto from an extremely tight angle.

Just minutes later, the midlands side gave themselves a three-goal cushion as Alfie May topped off a tidy move with a goal following an unselfish pass from Willumsson inside the box.

It was a night filled with more than just rockets in the sky, Marc Leonard attempted an audacious effort from 30-yards-out which he watched go narrowly wide of the post.

Yokoyama added a fifth with a thunderbolt of a first-time strike flying into the net on the 73rd minute.

Birmingham were not finished there though as substitute Keshi Anderson made an intelligent move to get on the end of a great ball before advancing into the box and slotting the ball under the young goalkeeper.

The performance was topped off by Lyndon Dykes who bagged his first goal for the club since signing from Queens Park Rangers a number of seasons ago.

Full Time 7-1