Runaway League One leaders Birmingham City are setting themselves up for a very Good Friday indeed.
The Blues are 14 points clear of both Wycombe Wanderers and Wrexham in second and third respectively.
After Tuesday’s 2-1 win against Stevenage, they are seven wins away from automatic promotion as champions regardless of their rivals’ results.
Birmingham’s no-so-secret weapon
There’s no great secret behind Birmingham’s imminent instant return to the Championship.
Under the chairmanship of Tom Wagner and the significant buy-in of his Knighthead Capital Management group, the Blues have invested heavily in limiting their stay in the third tier.
Birmingham play like a team with more money than everyone else in the division. In Chris Davies, they might also have the most promising manager. He’s certainly one of the sharpest.
Craig Gardner, their director of football, points out that the club recouped some money after relegation last season. They also broke the League One transfer record three times.
One-time Blues loan striker Jay Stansfield joined for £15 million plus add-ons, eclipsing the fees paid for Christoph Klarer and Willum Willumsson combined.
With his 16 league goals this season spearheading a promotion that’s now a simple matter of time, all signs point to the former Fulham man being worthy of Wagner and Gardner’s financial faith.
“Birmingham are cantering back to the Championship this season and he’s scored 20 goals in all competitions. He [Jay Stansfield] has been an absolute monster of a buy for them.”
Carlton Palmer
Speaking to Football League World, West Midlands-born former England international Carlton Palmer said: “Jay Stansfield dropped down two divisions to Birmingham City and has more than justified his hefty price tag.
“Birmingham are cantering back to the Championship this season and he’s scored 20 goals in all competitions. He has been an absolute monster of a buy for them.”
22-year-old Stansfield, a proud Devonian and graduate of Exeter City’s youth ranks who also played on loan for the Grecians, didn’t score against Stevenage at St Andrew’s.
For the second match in a row, Birmingham were awarded a penalty and it was taken by Kieran Dowell, but Stansfield showcased the rest of his game including the deftness of touch and bright imagination that ultimately won Davies’ side the spot kick.
Stansfield will have no problem stepping up to the Championship next season. His Premier League pedigree oozes out of his game from the quality of his first touch to the intelligence in his movement.
He’s not short of pace and chases anything that’s worth chasing but nothing that isn’t. His tenacity out of possession marks him out at League One level.
Wycombe’s Richard Kone has scored more in less time but Stansfield looks a certainty not only to be playing in the Championship in 2025-26, but to thrive too.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that he takes his goals up with him to the Championship and I believe he’d take them up to the Premier League as well,” continued Palmer.
“If you were to go and buy a striker now in the Championship to go and get promotion, or buy a striker in the Premier League, it actually looks like a steal for them.”
The Blues’ first fixture of Easter weekend is at St Andrew’s against Crawley Town. If they’re not already promoted by then, a win against the West Sussex relegation battlers will complete the job.
Davies reminded the media after the Stevenage game that Birmingham have had to work hard for their wins but they will be emphatic league winners.
A division higher, Burnley won the Championship in 2022-23 with 101 points – the same total that can be reached by Wycombe this season and will likely be outstripped by Birmingham.
It remains to be seen whether a similar jump in competition awaits the winners of League One and whether Birmingham, uniquely able to shrug off their challengers in the third tier this season, can adapt their might and methods to a much tougher test.
In FourFourTwo’s opinion, Stansfield is capable, rounded and dangerous enough to make sure finding the right striker isn’t on Gardner’s to-do list.
