Only two points better off and with one defender - Birmingham City lose to Huddersfield

A nightmare hour at St Andrew’s saw Birmingham City sustain injuries in the warm-up before and during the first half of their 2-0 loss to Huddersfield Town.

Goals from Levi Colwill, via a deflection off Gary Gardner – and Lewis O’Brien, gave the visitors a relatively straightforward victory and left Blues and Lee Bowyer needing to find answers.

Their performances in terms of how they use the ball are more engaging than before Christmas but their form is poor and they are running out of players.

Here’s what stood out from a troubling afternoon at St Andrew’s.

Huddersfield knew exactly how they were going to attack Blues.

Carlos Corberan’s team is normally a possession-based, passing side yet at St Andrew’s they changed both formation and style.

The 3-4-3 which had seen them produce as last gasp victory against Cardiff just three days prior, became a 4-3-3 and the mobile striker Danny Ward was replaced by target man Jordan Rhodes.

Instead of trying to play through Blues Huddersfield knew they could pressurise Blues’ non-defensive defenders by chipping balls in behind them and pressing hard.

Both Corberan and goalscorer Lewis O’Brien spoke about it after the game, how they knew they could force mistakes from players playing out of position.

And O’Brien’s goal, Terriers’ second, was an absolute case in point, with a pass going over Gary Gardner’s head, Kristian Pedersen coming across to cover without actually doing anything – then, as a central midfielder, Gardner’s instinct to try to keep the ball alive kicked in when he should have clattered it into the Main Stand.

After that, needing to chase the game Blues went forward and were caught on the counter again and again in a first half which could have ended 3-0 or 4-0.

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