Birmingham City answered their midweek humiliation with a 2-1 away win at Wrexham, and Chris Davies said his side had got themselves together after the 6-1 home loss to Brentford in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday night. Phil Neumann scored both goals, and the result extended Birmingham City's unbeaten away run to five games.
For readers searching Coventry City now, the link is simple: this was the kind of sharp response that changes the mood around a club fast. Davies said he had backed his players to react after Tuesday night, and they did it by winning a tight game on the road, the kind he said can go either way. He called it a deserved win and a big one, which mattered because the pressure around him had been personal as well as collective after the Brentford defeat.
The manager did not hide from that week. Davies said he had known worse moments than the criticism that came after Brentford, pointing to much lower points in his time in League One and saying he had learned how to deal with them. That mattered here because Birmingham did not just edge Wrexham on energy; they did it through set pieces, with August Priske supplying the cross for one of Neumann's headers. Davies said that in matches this tight you need your set pieces, and Birmingham had already proved that point once before by winning away at Swansea 1-0 in the same way.
There was also a footballing edge to the night beyond the scoreline. Davies said Neumann was fantastic and singled out his finishing and the delivery from Priske, while adding that the only complaint was that the striker did not get a hat-trick. He also said Neumann had handled Kieffer Moore well, describing Moore as one of the hardest opponents to face physically. That is the sort of detail that makes a response believable: not just that Birmingham won, but that they won by doing the awkward work and matching a side built to make life uncomfortable.
Davies' record against Wrexham now stands unbeaten in five meetings since he became Birmingham City boss, which underlines why this result carried weight beyond one away evening. The bigger question is whether this was the start of a real recovery or simply a sharp correction after a heavy setback. Birmingham's next tests arrive quickly, with Southampton at St Andrew's on Tuesday night and Wolves next Saturday lunchtime, and those games will show whether the mood reset in Wales lasts past one good answer.
