Birmingham boss Chris Davies was pleased with the control his side showed in the 2-0 home win over Burton.
Jay Stansfield’s first-half penalty and an own goal from goalkeeper Max Crocombe earned the League One leaders an eighth successive victory in all competitions.
Davies said: “They changed their shape to a back five which they haven’t been doing.
“They were sat in a bit of a block so it was a case of us taking the ball to them and trying to take the initiative.
“I thought we played the game well, at 2-0 I thought there was a control about us. There was concentration but control, we didn’t have to chase the game too much.
“We got ahead with a couple of good goals; I liked the look of us.
“I gave the players a lot of messages about playing against a back four and then had to change when I saw the team sheet!
“We’ve had that a few times, the good thing is I think 50 per cent of our games have been against back fives and because of the amount of games we’ve played we have had practice against different shapes.
“We have got a lot of reference points that I can give back to the players and say ‘this is what we need to do against this one’.
“They’ve set up on being hard to beat, dangerous on the counter attack and set pieces which is absolutely fine and it’s our job to play the game that is in front of us.”
Stansfield took his tally to 14 for the season with his penalty in the first half.
Davies added: “Jay’s enthusiasm and energy – fans will always want a player like that. He runs, he works, he is infectious. He has got quality.
“He is a dangerous player; he’s always looking to see a gap and use it.
“He had a lot of time to wait with the penalty because of the player getting treatment but he took it well.
“I think he is a natural goal scorer, there are a couple of goals that tell you that.
“I am playing him just off the left so he is having to make these runs into the goalscoring positions, so he is definitely a natural finisher.”
Burton dropped to the bottom of the table after a third loss in a four-game winless run.
Boss Gary Bowyer told the club’s website: “I was pleased with a lot of aspects but at the end of the day we’ve lost the game.
“We’ve got to change our habits and our mentality very quickly because we could have come here today against the league leaders and taken something.
“We’ve spoke about being resilient and that mentality shift, you can see today some of the things we’re trying to do and there’s things to build on for sure.
“I want to give them a pat on the back but at the end of the day this industry is about winning football matches.
“Take the score aside, there are positives from the performance and I can see that we’re going to get better so we will continue to do that.
“Our objective is to win games and we need to focus on that and take things game by game.”
