The Irish defender headed in Aaron Cresswell\u2019s 21st-minute corner to hand last season\u2019s runaway League One champions a third successive defeat in all competitions.<\/p>\n
Mark Robins\u2019 only complaint would be that his much-improved side failed to make the final outcome more comfortable.<\/p>\n
Birmingham, beaten 2-0 at Leicester before the international break, were fortunate not to be further behind at half-time.<\/p>\n
And while Blues improved in a much less eventful second half, they lacked a cutting edge to save a point or even threaten a third league win since their second-tier arrival.<\/p>\n
For Stoke, who handed a debut to impressive Slovakia international Tomas Rigo, it was the perfect way to rally from their previous home defeat by West Brom.<\/p>\n
They have now won four of their first five league games and look set for their most productive campaign in years.<\/p>\n
The home side had already warned Birmingham of their intent, minutes before centre-half Lawal broke the deadlock.<\/p>\n
Ryan Allsop saved a Divin Mubama header, though the newly-capped England Under-21 international was immediately flagged offside.<\/p>\n
There was nothing wrong with the striker\u2019s next effort, a neat flick to meet Million Manhoef\u2019s superb cross from the right.<\/p>\n
Allsop saved at the expense of a corner but moments later was picking the ball out of his net.<\/p>\n
Cresswell\u2019s delivery was a deep one, Lawal jumped highest and looped the ball over Allsop and into the far corner.<\/p>\n
Stoke surged forward in search of a second goal and keeper Victor Johansson\u2019s long punt reached the unmarked Sorba Thomas.<\/p>\n
His angled shot was a fierce one but fortuitously for Blues it smacked against an upright and cannoned behind for a corner.<\/p>\n
Little had been seen of Jay Stansfield, back in harness after missing the defeat at Leicester with an ankle injury.<\/p>\n
But six minutes from half-time he connected with Ethan Laird\u2019s cross, only for Lawal to produce a timely block.<\/p>\n
Stansfield had a clearer chance after 52 minutes but shot wide from Tommy Doyle\u2019s delivery.<\/p>\n
Six minutes later the striker was sent clear by Doyle\u2019s raking pass and appeared to have suffered more ankle trouble under Ben Wilmot\u2019s brilliant tackle.<\/p>\n
But he soldiered on and was not part of a triple substitution on the hour as Birmingham boss Chris Davies sought a way back into the contest.<\/p>\n
Substitute Lewis Koumas provided one such opportunity but Demarai Gray\u2019s final volley was a poor one.<\/p>\n
Birmingham enjoyed plenty of possession in the final 20 minutes but did not produce one shot on target in the entire contest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Irish defender headed in Aaron Cresswell\u2019s 21st-minute corner to hand last season\u2019s runaway League One champions a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421649,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-421648","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115198230901294778","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421648","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=421648"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421648\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}