Birmingham City saw off Stevenage on Tuesday night to give themselves a lead of 14 points at the top of League One.
Kieran Dowell converted another penalty and Paik Seung-ho scored his first goal of the season in a 2-1 victory for Blues at St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park. Jake Young grabbed a consolation for Stevenage in the final minute of stoppage time.
Blues have reached 82 points with 11 games to play – 90 has been enough to guarantee promotion to the Championship in all but one season in League One’s recent history.
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READ MORE: Birmingham City 2-0 Stevenage live: Paik Seung-ho adds to Kieran Dowell penalty
For the second game running, Dowell opened the scoring in B9 from the penalty spot. The on-loan Rangers man stepped up again instead of Jay Stansfield and sent goalkeeper Murphy Cooper the wrong way.
Alfons Sampsted, who was making his first league start for Blues, deserves credit for winning the penalty after combining neatly with Stansfield inside the box before being tugged back by Louis Thompson right in front of referee Alan Young.
Sampsted continued to torment Stevenage down Blues’ right and whipped in two delicious crosses that weren’t attacked. Chris Davies would have expected his attackers to throw themselves at such quality deliveries.
Emil Hansson was one of those who didn’t attack Sampsted’s deliveries and the Swede didn’t re-emerge after half-time. Alfie May replaced him and Stansfield switched to the left-wing.
May’s first involvement saw him keep a corner alive and tee up Paik to fire home Blues’ second. Paik turned intelligently away from his man and found the bottom corner with an arrowed left-footed drive from the edge of the box.
A goal is what everyone of a Blues persuasion wants for May and Stevenage right-back Nick Freeman inadvertently presented him with the chance to score 17 minutes from time. May tried to lift the ball over the onrushing Cooper but got too much on the effort and it sailed into The Tilton.
Stevenage had the final say in stoppage time as substitute Young notched with a tidy finish across Ryan Allsop after Blues failed to deal with a long free-kick into their box. But the points stayed in Birmingham.
Ryan Allsop 7
The goalkeeper made a smart save early on after Jamie Reid cut inside from the left and let fly. He didn’t have a great deal to do with his hands from thereon and kicked well.
Alfons Sampsted 8*
Sampsted made his mark on his first league start for Blues. He provided plenty of width and attacking threat on the right, in addition to winning the penalty for Blues’ opener.
Christoph Klarer 7.5
Klarer wasn’t overly worked by a Stevenage side which lacked punch in attack but the Austrian thudded a few headers clear of danger and passed with purpose and precision.
Ben Davies 8
Davies has bounced back from one below-par performance at Bolton with two strong ones against Lincoln and Stevenage. The defender’s long range passing is proving to be a weapon for Blues.
Alex Cochrane 7
The dependable left-back soldiered through his 43rd game of the season without incident. Cochrane was more defensively minded than fellow full-back Sampsted but had his moments going forward in tandem with Hansson and Stansfield.
Tomoki Iwata 7.5
The middle of the St Andrew’s pitch belongs to Iwata. He controlled the tempo of the game from deep and made some eye-catching passes, including one which should have led to a scoring chance for midfield partner Paik in the first half.
Paik Seung-ho 8
Paik finally provided his first goal of the season with a lovely left-footed finish to seal another three points. The South Korean was tidy on the ball and covered plenty of ground in search of the goal that had eluded him until now.
Kieran Dowell 8
Dowell calmly stroked home his second penalty for Blues and oozed class once again. The midfielder showed a bit of bite in the second half and never shirks his defensive duties.
Willum Willumsson 7
We can all see Willumsson is some way below his best but some of the class and poise in possession that we saw pre-Christmas was evident against Stevenage. There were two second half nutmegs in a better showing from the big Icelandic.
Emil Hansson 6.5
Hansson was an effective option for Blues for much of the first half but he should have attacked the far post better when Sampsted delivered two superb crosses at the end of the first half. Davies likes his wingers to occupy goal-scoring positions and Hansson didn’t make the second half.
Jay Stansfield 7.5
Blues’ top scorer put in a selfless display up front to set the tone for another victory. He passed on another penalty and looked to create for his teammates rather than score his 17th league goal of the campaign.
SUBS
Alfie May (for Hansson, 46) 7
A fruitful outing from the bench for May who created one goal and was involved in some of Blues’ best attacking play.
Marc Leonard (for Iwata, 64) 6
Leonard filled in effectively for Iwata, patrolling in front of the defence and recycling the ball.
Krystian Bielik (for Sampsted, 69) 6
The skipper shored things up on the right side for the final 20 minutes after Sampsted had done the damage offensively.
Keshi Anderson (for Stansfield, 69) 6.5
Anderson is playing with such confidence at the moment and he always looks menacing in possession. He didn’t have to exert himself too much on his second comeback game with the victory sewn up before his introduction.
Grant Hanley (for May, 94) N/A
Not used: Peacock-Farrell, Jutkiewicz
Attendance: 25,544
