Birmingham head coach Chris Davies reflected on two moments of quality in three first-half minutes following his side’s 2-1 win at Burton.
Blues chose the perfect time to seize the advantage, with Alfons Sampsted firing in a deflected first followed by a cool finish from Jay Stansfield to end the opening 45 minutes perfectly for the visitors.
“That was definitely the case. It was a good time to get the goals,” Davies said.
Burton had their moments in a tight first half with leading striker Rumarn Burrell a threat, something that Davies had identified pre-match.
“I thought we were very comfortable throughout the match and I liked how we approached it,” he added. “We really had to try and take the initiative with them sitting off us and we had to pay attention with Burrell for them on the counter-attack.
“We worked the ball well and tried to do the right things all of the time and then two good goals put us in a strong position at half-time.”
Sampsted fired in from the edge of the box and it was evident what the goal, his first in English football, meant to the Icelandic defender.
“He has been an outstanding professional every day, even when he hasn’t been in the matchday squads,” Davies said. “He has been very supportive to the other players and you can see how much the goal meant to him.
“First season in English football can be a learning curve and he has adapted to it well. He took his goal well but was also solid defensively.”
Burton head coach Gary Bowyer was left to rue those quick-fire goals which took the heat out of the game.
“It was a costly three minutes,” he said. “From our point of view the game plan was doing what we wanted it to do without Max (Crocombe) having a lot to do.
“They paid us respect, I think, bringing in Grant Hanley to deal with the threat of Rumarn Burrell. We had moments but Hanley read the danger well and snuffed things out.
“We switched off from a throw-in, which is schoolboy stuff, and it ends up being a corner and then a wicked deflection from a mishit shot which probably sums up our luck at the moment.”
Despite defeat, Albion remain outside the bottom four with two more home games to come, including what could be a crucial game in hand against Wigan.
“All we can do is concentrate on the next game,” Bowyer added. “There are positives we can take out of today and we need to prepare well now for Cambridge here on Saturday.”
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