![\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_Stoke-City-v-Birmingham-City-Sky-Bet-Championship.jpg\")
Chris Davies reacts during the Sky Bet Championship match between Stoke City and Birmingham City (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\nBosun Lawal scored the only goal of the game as Stoke City defeated Birmingham City at the Bet365 Stadium Chris Davies reacts during the Sky Bet Championship match between Stoke City and Birmingham City (Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Chris Davies blamed Birmingham City\u2019s defeat to Stoke City on their sluggish start.<\/p>\n
Blues<\/a> have suffered back-to-back league defeats for the first time under Davies<\/a> and have lost their last three games without scoring including the Carabao Cup exit to Port Vale.<\/p>\n Stoke capitalised on some early lapses to score through Bosun Lawal and Blues couldn\u2019t hit back.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt was a tough match,\u201d said Davies. \u201cI knew it would be a tough match coming to Stoke, everyone knows that.<\/p>\n \u201cI think we started the game too slowly, that was the reason for the defeat because we were too slow to win duels, second balls, really impose ourselves in what was clearly going to be a challenging start and that culminated in them scoring a goal from a set piece which was very disappointing.<\/p>\n \u201cA little bit like our last match, we were on the back foot in the game quite early because of that and from that point on we started to grow back into the game. From half-time we were looking more like ourselves and that continued all the way through to the end.\u201d<\/p>\n Blues had 58 percent possession and entered the Potters\u2019 final third on countless occasions in the second half without creating a gilt-edged chance.<\/p>\n Jay Stansfield<\/a> saw a goal-bound effort blocked by Lawal and Demarai Gray miscued a volley late on.<\/p>\n But, statistically speaking, Blues have only worked the goalkeeper on one occasion in their past three matches.<\/p>\n Davies said: \u201cIt\u2019s been a bit of a familiar story in the last two games. We\u2019ve had the lion\u2019s share of the games, possession, a certain level of dominance, arriving in the final third a lot, but not then creating big chances from that.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest being Jay\u2019s shot in the first half that they blocked well. Dimmy had a decent volleyed chance in the second half. That was the frustrating part but ultimately the slow start has cost us.\u201d<\/p>\n Do you agree with Davies’ verdict? Let us know HERE<\/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":"Bosun Lawal scored the only goal of the game as Stoke City defeated Birmingham City at the Bet365…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[855,1205,748,8372,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-422786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-birmingham","9":"tag-birmingham-city-fc","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-chris-davies-football-coach","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115200723859291096","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422786","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=422786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}