birmingham city Head coach Chris Davies’ defeat to Middlesbrough on Monday night was his second St Andrews League One defeat since taking charge in the summer of 2024.

The promoted side beat the home team 3-1 in the final game of the week thanks to a first-half brace from former Aston Villa left-back Matt Targett.

Marvin Ducksch’s goal three minutes into the second half gave the home fans hope of a comeback, but David Strelec sealed victory with a magnificent header.

Birmingham are eight points adrift of the play-off places with 11 games remaining after losing their last two games to Millwall and Middlesbrough, conceding six goals in the process.

If the Blues continue conceding goals at this rate, they cannot expect to be in the play-offs and Davies will know this and hope to address it in the coming games.

What went wrong at Birmingham vs Middlesbrough

One of the reasons why Birmingham’s defense was so open against Middlesbrough was that Bright Osayi-Samuel made a number of defensive errors that opened up space for the visitors.

The former Queens Park Rangers star appeared unaware of Target’s run in behind him and misjudged the direction of the ball’s flight before missing his attempted clearance, allowing the full-back to run towards goal.

For the second goal, the Nigeria international was stranded due to a poor clearance from Christoph Kral, but he was unable to keep out Hayden Hackney’s header from danger or deny Target in time.

Osayi Samuel’s errors allowed Middlesbrough’s left-back to score two goals to give the visitors the lead, which was the ultimate price paid by the Blues on the night.

The 28-year-old star did have some bright, no pun intended, moments in his performance, though, with an excellent pass to Jay Stansfield setting up Ducksch’s goal, and he won four of his six ground duels throughout the night.

Although he made defensive errors in two of Target’s goals at St Andrews, there was a Birmingham player who performed worse and should be dropped from the next league game.

Birmingham losers worse than Osayi Samuel

The Blues travel to relegation-threatened Charlton Athletic on Saturday and at least one player should be left out of the starting XI.

James Beadle is ahead of Ryan Allsop again, but the Brighton & Hove Albion loanee’s performance has been disappointing.

While Osayi-Samuel could have done more to prevent chances being created, both goals from Birmingham number one Targett looked inconsistent, leaving a huge gap for the full-back to score easily at the near post.

Biddle lost 100% of the duels (1/1) and in the last game against Millwall he conceded three goals in five shots and he conceded three goals in three shots.

As well as struggling to stop shots, the England U21 international has also struggled from the back, completing just 43% of his passes (19/44), suggesting he is even worse than Osayi Samuel as he struggles in all aspects of his game.

Some home fans expressed frustration with his distribution on several occasions during the first half as he often passed the ball back to Middlesbrough. A hit to his face in the first half may have affected his ability to handle the ball, but it has been an issue all season.

Beadle put in an incredible performance in last month’s 2-1 win over Norwich City, making eight saves and preventing 1.56 goals against, but that looked to be a blip.

The 21-year-old goalkeeper has conceded 4.11 more goals than expected in 25 games. championship this season.

Althorp, meanwhile, has conceded 1.94 more goals than expected in ten games in the league, indicating that both goalkeepers have struggled in goalkeeping, but Biddle has been the worst of the two.

The Brighton loanee also has a worse pass completion rate (57%) than Althorp (67%) in the league. His passes are too cheap, giving his opponents more opportunities to create opportunities.

As a result, Davies must remove Beadle from the starting XI and allow Althorp to return to the team for this weekend’s Championship game against Charlton Athletic.

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