Chris Davies was delighted with how Brighton & Hove Albion loanee James Beadle performed for Birmingham City away at Norwich.placeholder image
Chris Davies was delighted with how Brighton & Hove Albion loanee James Beadle performed for Birmingham City away at Norwich. | Getty Images
Chris Davies is thrilled with how a Brighton & Hove Albion loanee is getting on at Birmingham City.
Birmingham City manager Chris Davies has heaped praise on goalkeeper James Beadle after he played a pivotal role in the club’s hard-fought 2-1 win away at Norwich City.
Blues started brilliantly as goals from Carlos Vicente and Marvin Ducksch made it 2-0 after just 14 minutes, however Norwich responded well to halve the deficit through Kenny McLean just after the hour mark, making for a tense conclusion.
As much as Birmingham got off the mark quickly, it was Norwich with the lion’s share of possession and the more chances on the day. If it wasn’t for a tremendous performance from Beadle, Blues could well have conceded more and dropped points from a winning position.
Chris Davies hails wonderkid
Beadle, on loan from Brighton & Hove Albion for the season, made a whopping eight saves away at Norwich, preventing 1.56 expected goals conceded (xGC). The 21-year-old also made three high claims, six throws and 11 recoveries, while he completed 28 of his 47 passes.
There have been some doubts over whether Beadle is quite the wonderkid he has been tipped to be, as the youngster has had the odd shaky game this campaign, but he proved doubters wrong on Saturday. Birmingham need as many wins as they can get at this crucial stage of the season and they would not have secured all three points if it wasn’t for Beadle’s saves.
Speaking to Blues TV after the game, Davies said: “Goalkeepers are obviously very involved in the build up these days, and passing the ball out from the back. But fundamentally their job is to save shots and have big moments in the goal, and James had a few for us.
“But he’s good around his line, he’s quick around his line, he’s a big size and he made some good reaction saves and he had a couple of big moments in there for us today, which the players have congratulated him for in the dressing room,” Davies added.
Blues are fortunate enough to have two strong goalkeepers in Beadle and Ryan Allsop but the former is likely to remain the first choice after the weekend’s triumph. There’s still time for that to change, of course, but Beadle is doing more than enough at the moment to warrant his starting place.
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