![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1750529231_253_Alex-Dicken-Birmingham-Mail.jpg\")
<\/p>\nAlex Dicken goes through his talking points after Birmingham City beat Nottingham Forest in their final pre-season friendly<\/p>\n
Birmingham City reporter for BirminghamLive and the Birmingham Mail<\/p>\n
![\"Birmingham](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_JS376900318.jpg\")
Class…. Paik Seung-ho in action against Nottingham Forest<\/p>\n
Birmingham City defeated Nottingham Forest in their final pre-season friendly <\/a>before the real stuff commences against Ipswich Town next Friday.<\/p>\n Jay Stansfield<\/a> netted the only goal of the game midway through the first half after being found by a cute pass from Tommy Doyle.<\/p>\n A full strength Forest side provided the perfect test for Blues<\/a> on a day where they remembered the iconic Trevor Francis at St Andrew\u2019s @ Knighthead Park.<\/p>\n It is fitting that we start our talking points from Blues\u2019 final friendly with the unveiling of the much-anticipated statue of Francis outside the main entrance.<\/p>\n A fitting tribute<\/p>\n Hundreds of supporters gathered outside the Kop Stand shortly before 1pm for the big reveal and it didn\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n Chief executive Jeremy Dale said a few words on the stage before inviting Francis\u2019s great friend Jasper Carrott to speak about \u2018Super Boy\u2019.<\/p>\n Dale and Carrott proceeded to pull the cover off the statue to the delight of those in attendance.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Phil Neumann has donned five throughout pre-season and the current holder, Dion Sanderson, is so far out the picture that he wasn\u2019t present at the club\u2019s in-house photoshoot earlier this week.<\/p>\n Tommy Doyle wore seven against Forest and Paik Seung-ho appears to have ditched his number 13 in favour of eight.<\/p>\n Demarai Gray started the game in number 10, while fellow summer signing Kyogo Furuhashi wore the number nine shirt Alfie May has recently vacated.<\/p>\n Bright Osayi-Samuel was wearing 16 so it will be interesting to see whether these are indeed the players\u2019 new squad numbers when the club confirm details next week.<\/p>\n There is no better way to get you in the mood for a new campaign than this stunning 64-page EFL special edition.<\/p>\n We profile all 72 clubs in the EFL, have every team’s fixtures, look at the key players, and provide a comprehensive list of the crucial dates not to miss.<\/p>\n Your guide to the EFL is on sale now. Click here <\/a>to buy.<\/p>\n Paik plays up to level<\/p>\n 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\u2019s Premier League.<\/p>\n We saw in February how these players raised their game for Newcastle United and they did it again.<\/p>\n Paik Seung-ho<\/a> 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\u2019t look out of place in the slightest.<\/p>\n The South Korean\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n He dominated the middle ground in the first half of an outing that lasted 57 minutes on his return from injury.<\/p>\n Chris Davies<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Starting XI is set<\/p>\n Davies suggested that his starting line-up for Ipswich will be similar, if not identical, to what we saw against Forest.<\/p>\n Battles have been won in goal, where Ryan Allsop is number one \u2013 even if he doesn\u2019t take the No 1 jersey \u2013 and Bright Osayi-Samuel has edged Ethan Laird at right-back.<\/p>\n It is clear that Stansfield is a more natural fit at centre-forward for Blues right now than Kyogo, too.<\/p>\n Stansfield has had 12 months to learn how to play the position in Blues\u2019 system and his team-mates know exactly where he wants the ball \u2013 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.<\/p>\n Are you happy with how Blues are going into the season? Tell us your thoughtsHERE<\/a>Get the latest Blues headlines sent straight to your phone<\/p>\n BirminghamLive has its very own Birmingham City<\/a> WhatsApp community to deliver the latest headlines straight to your phone. Just click this link<\/a> to receive daily Blues content and breaking news. We also treat our community members to special offers, promotions, and adverts from us and our partners. If you don\u2019t like our community, you can check out any time you like. Click on the name at the top of your screen while in WhatsApp and click ‘Exit Group’. Read our Privacy Notice.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Alex Dicken goes through his talking points after Birmingham City beat Nottingham Forest in their final pre-season friendly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":314069,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4100],"tags":[1205,8372,94,1206,109335,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-314068","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-birmingham-city-fc","9":"tag-chris-davies-football-coach","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-jay-stansfield","12":"tag-paik-seung-ho","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114963901691368903","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=314068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/314068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/314069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=314068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=314068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=314068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_JS376877199.jpg\")
A statue is unveiled outside St Andrew’s to honour the life of Trevor FrancisSquad number hints<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1754209822_772_0_Article-Image-2.jpg\")
You Ready for this?<\/p>\n