Jay Stansfield has enjoyed a season of two halves for Birmingham City in their first year back in the Championship
06:00, 24 Apr 2026
Birmingham City’s Jay Stansfield
You could write a book on Jay Stansfield’s Birmingham City career – and he is still only 23.
The striker notched the 50th league goal of his young career on Wednesday, 41 of which have come for Blues, to help his team beat Preston North End.
It was the third time in four games against Preston that Stansfield has found the net and it ended a run of 13 games without a goal for the striker everyone disconnected with Birmingham City is quick to round on.
Stansfield has courageously talked about using a psychologist to help him deal with the pressure and expectation that comes with being a club’s record signing.
When he was substituted at Hull City last weekend to a chorus of ‘what a waste of money’, it felt like Stansfield was back in League One, being mocked and ridiculed for a price tag that someone else dreamt up.
Chris Davies was quite bullish in his defence of Stansfield post-Hull and sought the striker out to reassure him of his position before the Preston match.
In doing so, Davies removed some of the pressure that doesn’t necessarily bring out the best in Stansfield and, lo and behold, the striker scored and produced an eye-catching performance.
Speaking candidly after ending his goal drought, Stansfield said: “Every forward wants to be scoring goals and it hasn’t quite clicked for me this season.
“It can get difficult. There’s a lot of noise and I’ve got used to it over the last few years. This year it’s got to me sometimes but I’ve gone out and done my best for the team.”
Stansfield has largely played as a number 10 this season. View that position any way you want, as a second striker or an attacking midfielder, it isn’t a centre-forward.
Twenty-four of Stansfield’s 39 league starts this season have come in that position. The return? Ten goals and seven assists puts Stansfield in the top-10 Championship players in terms of productivity.
Zan Vipotnik, Haji Wright, Oli McBurnie, Josh Windass, Joe Gelhardt, Morgan Whittaker, Finn Azaz, Scott Twine and Sorba Thomas are the only players who have registered more goal contributions in the Championship this season than Stansfield.
Stansfield has enjoyed the best season of his career in terms of assists, which shows development in his game, and the ability to create chances is key in the number 10 position.
He has created 11 ‘big chances’ for his teammates which, again, is more than any other Blues player.
In addition to numbers, Stansfield brings exceptional work ethic and running power to the role – the other contenders within Blues’ squad simply can’t match him in that regard.
Jay Stansfield of Birmingham City
What he doesn’t always bring is quality in possession and that is something to work on. Stansfield has 66.7 percent pass completion this season and needs to improve his ability to take the ball on the half-turn and thread passes through to the centre-forward, be it August Priske or someone else.
The narrative that Stansfield’s season has slowed since November is a fair one and that is true of Birmingham City too.
He isn’t the problem, but Stansfield isn’t going to carry Blues to the Premier League without some help, and that over-reliance still exists – hence why Blues really feel it when Stansfield goes on a goal drought.
Now that Stansfield has come out of his rut, his attention is already turning to attacking next season.
A rest is in order after 97 games in the last two seasons – a packed schedule not lightened by Stansfield’s participation in the European Championships for England under-21s last summer – but if this is a bad season, you wonder what a good one looks like.
The next chapter of the Stansfield story is to spearhead a promotion push.
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