Tom Wagner and his Knighthead Capital Administration hardly made an auspicious begin as homeowners of Birmingham Metropolis.
Sacking boss John Eustace after they have been sixth within the Championship and appointing Wayne Rooney took many without warning and, with the previous Manchester United and England striker profitable solely two of his 15 league video games in cost earlier than being changed by Gary Rowett, relegation grew to become a close to certainty.
A rebuild below Chris Davies noticed Blues pay a League One document price to signal Jay Stansfield, together with his 19 targets serving to to fireplace them to a record-breaking promotion.
Final season introduced consolidation and a Tenth-place end with the hope for a promotion tilt this time round and the early indicators are promising.
A run of 5 wins from their previous six video games has propelled Davies’ facet as much as third, and an opportunity to presumably go high by beating Swansea on Saturday (15:00 GMT).
“The league desk is short-term for the time being and once I got here in two-and-a-half years in the past we might simply been relegated, so we have come a good distance and we really feel like we should be the place we’re,” mentioned Davies after Tuesday’s 3-0 win over Millwall.
Swansea’s go to not solely offers check for Birmingham’s credentials but additionally of the Welshmen’s powers of restoration.
A 4-0 thrashing of Blackburn final weekend was sandwiched in between a 5-0 walloping by QPR and Tuesday’s 3-1 reverse at Portsmouth which has seen Vitor Matos’ facet fall out of the automated promotion locations.
This then appears like a primary actual check for each groups to show their value.