Unexpected challenge for Birmingham City emerges as Chris Davies doubles down on League One point

Birmingham City have surrendered top spot in League One to a surprise contender. Wycombe Wanderers’ 5-0 demolition of Stockport County on Tuesday saw them take the lead in the race for the Championship.

Wycombe have cemented themselves as a top-10 challenger over the past few years in League One but they aren’t the rival many expected to step forward and challenge Blues. Wrexham, Bolton, Huddersfield and Barnsley have struggled to keep pace.

Wycombe lost their opening two League One matches to Wrexham and Blues respectively but haven’t been defeated since August. Aston Villa are the only team to beat the Chairboys in their last 15 matches.

However, during their 11-match unbeaten run in League One Wycombe have only played two teams inside the top 10. Blues, in contrast, have faced all of the top seven in their opening 12 games.

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Despite three teams taking points against them, Chris Davies’ side remain overwhelming favourites to win the League One title. “It’s looking good in the overall picture,” says Blues manager Davies.

“We’ve started well and what we’ve seen is what I knew already – every game is tough. Although our results have been good, every game has been a challenge and it’s not an easy league. Anyone that thinks it’s easy, they don’t understand football.”

Wycombe’s acid test is coming. Wigan, Huddersfield, Lincoln, Mansfield and Exeter are the next five matches for Matt Bloomfield’s side. Blues have Northampton, Shrewsbury, Exeter, Stockport and Barnsley in that time.

Blues’ room for improvement is obvious. An ability to kill games when leading has been missing on occasions, although it has only been costly once against Mansfield, and Blues have sometimes found it difficult to penetrate low blocks.

Blues rank seventh in terms of shots per game in League One (13) and eighth for shots on target (4.6). An average of 69.2 percent possession has given Blues control, but they do need to create more scoring chances.

“From my point of view, we are dominating games well, creating chances, generally defending pretty solidly,” adds Davies. “We can do more, with and without the ball, and keep trying to grow and improve how we impose ourselves and get better margins in games if we are up.”

Five of Blues’ nine wins have come by a one-goal margin. League One sides have found ways to compete with Blues, even if only one side has beaten them.

Davies was right when he said League One wouldn’t be easy. What we have seen so far is a team that can grind out results with more gears to shift through. Now we will see whether Wycombe and the others can keep pace.

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