Birmingham City needed a late goal from former Rangers winger Scott Wright to earn Chris Davies his first home win as Blues manager.
Chris Davies and Shaun Maloney have different perspectives on Birmingham City’s late 2-1 triumph over Wigan Athletic.
The Blues appeared to be in control when Alfie May scored his fourth goal of the season midway through the first half, but the Latics’ interval changes brought them back into the game, and they deservedly equalised when Bailey Peacock-Farrell let Thelo Aasgaard’s low shot slip through his grasp and into the net.
As a result, Blues required a Scott Wright goal in injury time to avoid being held at home by Wigan, as Reading had done on the season’s first day.
Blues had regained control of the game by the time the former Rangers player delivered the decisive blow, with Marc Leonard and Lyndon Dykes coming off the bench to play key roles. While Latics manager Maloney claims the turnaround was triggered by Stephen Sessegnon’s injury with ten minutes remaining, after the visitors had used all of their substitutions, Davies claims the Blues wore them down early in the game.
“A bit of bad luck today, I think, a real mix of emotions,” Maloney told reporters. “I am tremendously devastated by the outcome, but I am also extremely proud of how we got here and performed. I believe we were really good until we got down to ten, and then a little poor luck makes your day a lot more difficult.
“No game is a free hit; people pay to come watch us. I enjoyed preparing for the game and see it as an incredible challenge.
“I believe our players played brilliantly under pressure. I loved the vibe. There was a 10 or 15-minute period after they scored when you could really feel the atmosphere, and we had to suffer. Then I thought we were improving in the second half until Sessegnon was injured.”
Davies opted to credit his teammates rather than dismissing the circumstance as pure luck. “I am definitely pleased with the outcome. I believe the performance in the main was good. As I’ve often stated, we’re never going to have easy games. They’ll all be difficult, and I expected today to be particularly difficult.
“Wigan are a proactive squad; they try to press you and continue to play, so we had to be very prepared for that. However, I thought we were the superior team in the first half. We scored a good goal, made some wonderful movements, and then in the second half, I thought they had a brief period of 10-15 minutes where they were a little brighter and caused us some more trouble.
“But then we took control, and when they were down to ten men, we were able to really drive forward from there. I believe they went down to ten men as a result of us and how hard we work because they’ve made all of their substitutions and then they get another injury, and that’s something I’m trying to emphasize to the players: our energy, how hard we work, and our running will make teams struggle to keep up with us. You can tell how many of them are cramped and so forth.”