Two first half goals from Alfie May saw Birmingham City claim all three points against Stockport County last night. The 2-0 win means Blues now sit one point behind Wrexham with two games in hand, and three points behind Wycombe with a game in hand on the league leaders.
Stockport went close in the fifth minute as Will Collar received a switch of play from Aston Villa loanee Louie Barry. The attacking midfielder fired a powerful strike off the crossbar to give Blues a wake-up call.
The home side opened the scoring 20 minutes later as Keshi Anderson intercepted a throw from goalkeeper Ben Hinchliffe, the winger got to the byline and pulled it back to Alfie May in the penalty area. His first-time attempt deflected into the bottom-right corner to give Blues the lead.
May scored his eighth of the season nine minutes later, Tomoki Iwata managed to lay the ball off to Jay Stansfield while lying on the ground. Stansfield played a defence-splitting pass to Anderson who again squared to the Blues number nine, he calmly finished into the bottom-left corner to double Blues’ advantage.
Both Louie Barry and Kyle Wooton were denied by an excellent double-save from Ryan Allsop as Stockport were unfortunate to not halve the deficit just before half-time.
The away side had more of the ball in the second half but failed to trouble Blues as they showed their defensive solidity.
The important win was Birmingham’s third in a row as they look forward to an away trip to Barnsley where they will be supported by over 5,000 Bluenoses.