Alex Dicken goes through his talking points after Birmingham City beat Nottingham Forest in their final pre-season friendly
Birmingham City reporter for BirminghamLive and the Birmingham Mail
Class…. Paik Seung-ho in action against Nottingham Forest
Birmingham City defeated Nottingham Forest in their final pre-season friendly before the real stuff commences against Ipswich Town next Friday.
Jay Stansfield netted the only goal of the game midway through the first half after being found by a cute pass from Tommy Doyle.
A full strength Forest side provided the perfect test for Blues on a day where they remembered the iconic Trevor Francis at St Andrew’s @ Knighthead Park.
It is fitting that we start our talking points from Blues’ final friendly with the unveiling of the much-anticipated statue of Francis outside the main entrance.
A fitting tribute
Hundreds of supporters gathered outside the Kop Stand shortly before 1pm for the big reveal and it didn’t disappoint.
Chief executive Jeremy Dale said a few words on the stage before inviting Francis’s great friend Jasper Carrott to speak about ‘Super Boy’.
Dale and Carrott proceeded to pull the cover off the statue to the delight of those in attendance.
Sculptor Douglas Jennings has managed to create an uncanny likeness to Francis and ensured one of his iconic goal celebrations can be seen in all its glory every time supporters approach St Andrew’s.
A statue is unveiled outside St Andrew’s to honour the life of Trevor FrancisSquad number hints
Eagle-eyed fans will have spotted some new numbers on the backs of the Blues players. While there is no new number one, with Ryan Allsop set to keep 21 and James Beadle in 25, the five, seven, eight, nine and 10 shirts appear to have new owners.
Phil Neumann has donned five throughout pre-season and the current holder, Dion Sanderson, is so far out the picture that he wasn’t present at the club’s in-house photoshoot earlier this week.
Tommy Doyle wore seven against Forest and Paik Seung-ho appears to have ditched his number 13 in favour of eight.
Demarai Gray started the game in number 10, while fellow summer signing Kyogo Furuhashi wore the number nine shirt Alfie May has recently vacated.
Bright Osayi-Samuel was wearing 16 so it will be interesting to see whether these are indeed the players’ new squad numbers when the club confirm details next week.
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Paik plays up to level
There were more than a few Blues players who relished the opportunity of showcasing themselves against a Forest side that finished seventh in last season’s Premier League.
We saw in February how these players raised their game for Newcastle United and they did it again.
Paik Seung-ho missed that meeting with Newcastle in the FA Cup, but he was able to test himself against Premier League players on Saturday and he didn’t look out of place in the slightest.
The South Korean’s first involvement saw him cleverly trick his way out of a dangerous position in his own half by ghosting between two Forest players to win a free-kick.
He dominated the middle ground in the first half of an outing that lasted 57 minutes on his return from injury.
Chris Davies said quite early on last season that he sees no reason why Paik cannot play in the Premier League one day. On this evidence, albeit in a friendly, he looked very much at home in top-flight company.
Starting XI is set
Davies suggested that his starting line-up for Ipswich will be similar, if not identical, to what we saw against Forest.
Battles have been won in goal, where Ryan Allsop is number one – even if he doesn’t take the No 1 jersey – and Bright Osayi-Samuel has edged Ethan Laird at right-back.
It is clear that Stansfield is a more natural fit at centre-forward for Blues right now than Kyogo, too.
Stansfield has had 12 months to learn how to play the position in Blues’ system and his team-mates know exactly where he wants the ball – they are still learning how to play with Kyogo and that is why the Japanese goal-getter will likely start the season on the bench.
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