Birmingham City boss blames 'sticky' Sixfields pitch for 'unfortunate' own goal against Cobblers

The Blues persisted with their passing game at Sixfields despite being put under pressure by Town’s intense press throughout the first half, and they paid the price when Iwata got it all wrong and diverted the ball into his own net after 17 minutes.

Birmingham did recover to take a point thanks to Keshi Anderson’s header, and Davies insisted afterwards that he had no issue with his side’s willingness to play out from the back despite the error.

"It's a sticky penalty area and it's just got caught and bobbled in,” said Davies. “We had an advantage on the left side against (Cameron) McGeehan but we couldn't exploit it and we've looked for something quite intricate when it wasn't necessary and we've paid the price.

"The pitch obviously plays a big part in that because, on our pitch, that process would happen more smoothly but I said it to the players at half-time and I'll say it publicly, I take responsibility for these type of errors because the players could just boot it up the pitch whenever they get it.

"I want us to play sensible football, I don't want us to be gung-ho and taking ridiculous risks, but that's part of how we play and it's worked very well for us. It's unfortunate and it’s a difficult moment to take but these things happen."

Davies was also asked about his side’s failure to beat Cobblers home or away this season. Only Reading have played Birmingham twice in 2024/25 and not lost either game.

"I don't think it's anything specific,” Davies replied. “The last game was a very different type of game. We were attacking against a low block for the whole game and they scored in the last second to draw.

"This one was a game where we just couldn't get control for the first half-an-hour. I knew it would be scrappy but it was a lot scrappier than I wanted it to be and we just couldn't take our chances in the second half. It's just coincidence. It's a different manager and they have different players than the previous game.”