Chris Davies admitted he has “a lot to consider” following Birmingham’s 6-2 thrashing of 10-man Barnsley at St Andrew’s in Sky Bet League One.
Despite boasting a man advantage for all but three minutes of the game, it took a 33rd-minute Jay Stansfield penalty for Blues to find the breakthrough.
Barnsley replied through Davis Keillor-Dunn just two minutes later and entered the break level, a scoreline more than merited by their spirited display.
But Alfie May’s eight-minute brace at the start of the second half put the Tykes on the back foot and, although Stephen Humphrys pulled one back in the 59th minute, Barnsley’s mountain only grew.
Blues’ lead was extended first by Luke Harris in the 72nd minute and then by Kieran Dowell 10 minutes later as Davies’ side pulled out of sight.
There was to be more action late in the game, however, as Lukas Jutkiewicz added a sixth in the 89th minute, putting Blues within a single win of promotion back to the Championship.
Although victory against Peterborough on Tuesday would seal Blues’ return to the second tier, Davies admitted that there were a lot of factors heading into the game, given they face Posh in the Vertu Trophy final next Sunday, too.
“I’ll see how everyone is. I’ll see where they all are physically. We’ve played three games in a week after the international break. Some players have played a lot of minutes. Some are coming back from injury and all sorts of things like that,” Davies said.
“So I’ve got a lot to consider, thinking about what’s needed. We want to win the next game. That’s the most important thing in football but, obviously, we know that Wembley is there on the weekend as well. So these are all things I’ve got to consider, see how the boys are physically, and we’ll go from there.”
Despite the emphatic final score, things were not always plain sailing for Blues and, level at half-time, Davies sensed unease among his players.
He said: “I thought there was a bit of frustration maybe creeping in, and I was really conscious at half-time just to sort of not add to that frustration with the players. And we weren’t at our best, and I told them that.”
Interim Barnsley boss Conor Hourihane was quick to accept the red-card decision which saw Mael De Gevigney dismissed in the third minute.
“I looked back at it. I’ll be honest with you, that was red,” he said. “I think what I feel is disappointing is that that’s probably a red, but then, obviously, the one at Wigan that we had a couple of games ago was just as much of a red. We didn’t get the decision.”
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