{"id":98339,"date":"2025-05-13T15:09:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T15:09:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/98339\/"},"modified":"2025-05-13T15:09:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T15:09:18","slug":"two-birmingham-city-players-are-driving-their-own-promotion-charge-after-injury-hell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/98339\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Birmingham City players are driving their own promotion charge after injury hell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two Birmingham City players are involved in the end-of-season promotion lottery in League Two\"AlfieAlfie Chang celebrates the first goal of his professional career<\/p>\n

There is a Birmingham City feel to the Walsall team chasing promotion from League Two.<\/p>\n

The Saddlers were miles clear at the top of League Two in January, 12 points to be exact, before Stoke City\u2019s decision to recall prolific striker Nathan Lowe derailed their season.<\/p>\n

Walsall<\/a> won three of their final 21 matches having won 18 of their first 25. They were dealt another blow on the final day of the season when a goal scored by Blues\u2019 George Hall<\/a> had Walsall on course to finish third before a last-gasp winner for Bradford City consigned them to the play-offs.<\/p>\n

The play-offs started perfectly for the Saddlers though, thanks in no small part to their other Blues<\/a> loanee, Alfie Chang.<\/a><\/p>\n

Having played a minute of football in his first two-and-a-half months at Walsall, Chang has emerged as a mainstay in their starting line-up in the past month.<\/p>\n

He scored his first professional goal to put Walsall 2-0 up at Chesterfield in the first leg of their play-off semi-final on Sunday, and that’s how it stayed.<\/p>\n

Walsall boss Mat Sadler, another ex-Blues player, has eased Chang in after 18 months out with an awful knee injury and the 22-year-old has forged a midfield partnership with Ryan Stirk \u2013 also formerly of Blues. In doing so, Chang has ousted ex-Blues midfielder Charlie Lakin from the starting line-up.<\/p>\n

Salder said: \u201cAlfie is a cracking kid. We knew that it was going to take a little bit of time with Alfie because of what he\u2019s been through and what stage I knew he was at when we signed him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s playing very well. He\u2019s enjoying playing with Ryan (Stirk) and I think they\u2019ve got a good relationship forming.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chang has helped to provide a solid platform for Walsall\u2019s attacking talents to flourish. Hall, free from hamstring pain once more, is leading the charge on that front.<\/p>\n

The 20-year-old has provided the athleticism in attack that Walsall have lacked since Lowe\u2019s departure in January, if not the goals. Goals aren\u2019t Hall\u2019s game but he has contributed three, plus two assists, for Walsall this season.<\/p>\n

Two players who have had to overcome more than their fair share of adversity in the past two years are now bidding to help Walsall\u2019s crazy season end at Wembley.<\/p>\n

\"\"Birmingham City Champions 2024\/25 <\/p>\n

RECORD-BREAKING Birmingham City are back in the Championship.<\/p>\n

Chris Davies’ side passed the 100-point mark on their way to taking the League One title this season.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

And this Birmingham Mail promotion special<\/a> charts the brilliant Blues’ path to glory, with match-by-match analysis, reaction, comment, brilliant celebration pictures and a Champions poster in the middle pages.<\/p>\n

Buy now<\/a> and have it delivered directly to your door. Alternatively you can purchase in most supermarkets, high street retailers and independent newsagents in Birmingham <\/strong>from May 9, 2025.<\/p>\n

Everyday, the BirminghamLive football desk strive to deliver all manner of news, features and transfer-related stories as a part of our overall package of Birmingham City content.<\/p>\n

Our dedicated reporters Alex Dicken and Brian Dick – you can follow Alex on X here<\/a> and Brian here<\/a> – follow Blues around the country and they offer you comprehensive coverage from matchdays, press conferences and everything that happens in between.<\/p>\n

So much happens day to day and sometimes you can struggle to keep on top of the very latest updates as and when they occur – that’s why we have produced a daily newsletter which you can sign up to, for free, and which means you’ll have a round-up of the key stories land in your email inbox. Sign up to the Blues newsletter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can also get all your favourite content from BirminghamLive’s Blues team on WhatsApp. Click here<\/a> to sign up for breaking updates about the biggest stories and insight from in and around the club.<\/p>\n

If you prefer reading our Blues stories on your phone, consider downloading the BirminghamLive app, in which you can personalise the content you see by selecting Blues as one of your designated topics. You can get it from Apple here<\/a> and for Android here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Our weekly Birmingham City podcast, Keep Right On, is also available to watch and listen on all major streaming services. You can subscribe to the YouTube channel here, while you can access the podcast on Spotify here<\/a> and via Apple here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two Birmingham City players are involved in the end-of-season promotion lottery in League TwoAlfie Chang celebrates the first…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":98340,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7820],"tags":[45716,855,1205,748,393,45717,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-98339","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-birmingham","8":"tag-alfie-chang","9":"tag-birmingham","10":"tag-birmingham-city-fc","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-george-hall","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114501161191043553","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98339","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=98339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98339\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/98340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}