Birmingham City were promoted back to the Championship at the first time of asking and were immediately cast in the role of Premier League hopefuls. So forthright was their ambition, so unapologetic their bravado, that it couldn’t be any other way.
They now have their feet under the table and they’re starting to make a noise. Birmingham moved into third place with a 4-0 home win over Preston North End. They’ve picked up just over half of the points available to them. In what will surely be an open play-offs race, that sort of return is an adequate foundation.
Birmingham’s first goal against Preston was swept in from close range by Liam Millar, who joined the club on loan at the very end of the summer transfer window. He’s helping to transform them from maybes into probablies.
Liam Millar is Birmingham’s most accomplished threat
Millar scored for Hull City against Coventry City in the Premier League on the last Saturday or August. Three days later he was announced to Blues supporters at half time in their home fixture against Southampton.
Birmingham manager Chris Davies wasted no time in assimilating the Canadian international into his starting line-up and little wonder; Millar has Premier League academy pedigree and bags of experience including spells with Basel and the Tigers.
Millar gives Birmingham width in the attacking third and tends to stay there, making the pitch big and creating spaces for his teammates. He’s willing to square up a defender and try to beat him, and he makes sure he attacks the six-yard box when Patrick Roberts does the same on the right.
That’s where his goal, Birmingham’s springboard, came from on Tuesday night. Millar has now scored two Championship goals and assisted another three. The only wingers with more goal contributions at the time of writing are Blackburn Rovers’ Oladapo Afolayan and West Ham United captain Jarrod Bowen.
Birmingham have other ways to score goals. Davies leans on defenders Phil Neumann and Christoph Klarer to be a threat as much as striker August Priske, while Jay Stansfied is by now a seasoned Championship forward even if his work ethic doesn’t generate goals as naturally as it might.
Millar adds to these partnerships a more polished and more persistent source of danger for opponents.
The Canadian winger is also forging a promising partnership of his own.
Where a switched-on Bright Osayi-Samuel provides the thrust from right-back behind the cultured creativity of Roberts, Millar offers both impetus and invention on the left in front of Blues’ left-back.
Millar and Alex Cochrane could push Birmingham on to better things
Quietly, Alex Cochrane is sneaking up the rungs of influence among Championship full-backs and helping to supply the basis for Millar’s occasionally eye-popping individual ability. That he outworks Osayi-Samuel is a bonus.
Now 26, Cochrane developed as a local prospect at Brighton & Hove Albion before making a loan to Heart of Midlothian permanent in 2022. He became Birmingham’s fifth signing under Davies in the summer of 2024.
Cochrane is a growing character in a Blues defence full of personality and was the best player on the pitch in their statement win. His all-round performance – Cochrane was a big aerial presence and demonstrated excellent one-on-one defensive capability insofar as it was required – was topped off by what was in the words of his manager an ‘exceptional’ assist for the first of Priske’s two goals.
His pass in behind after the referee dropped the ball at his feet on the left flank was perfect to the millimetre. Priske couldn’t miss.
As a combination, Cochrane and Millar are becoming an efficient spearhead for Davies. They rank well among comparable players for big chances but lower for chances overall, suggesting, perhaps, an uplift in output as the festive fixtures rumble over the horizon.
The burgeoning duo have completed 90 minutes together only once in the Championship. Their partnership will only get better from here on in, and Davies can expect to squeeze even more from them than a total of two goals and five assists up to this point.
Birmingham’s left side is revealing itself as a sleeper power, starting to stir, and could yet be the edge that push them towards a meaningful crack at promotion. Being able to bring Demarai Gray on to score a fabulous fourth against Preston was the icing on the cake.
