Birmingham City manager John Eustace praised new signing Jay Stansfield after he got a late winner against Plymouth Argyle.
Stansfield signed on loan from Fulham for the season on Thursday, and came off the bench for his debut just after the hour mark.
It wouldn’t take long for him to make his mark in the Championship, as he scored a 95th minute winner to ensure the Blues got all three points and maintained their unbeaten start to the season.
“Jay is an excellent player,” Eustace said, speaking to the Birmingham Mail. “I think it’s a statement of intent that he chose us. He had 12 or 13 Championship clubs wanting him and it’s very pleasing that he wanted to come to Birmingham City.”
Stansfield spent last season on loan at boyhood club Exeter City in League One, scoring nine goals in 39 league games.
“It was an outstanding finish. We’ve watched him over the last couple of seasons how he has progressed and developed, and he’s going to be a really big player for us.
“He comes with a real hunger. He’s got great pedigree. He’s come from Exeter, where he was on fire last year, and he’s at a top Premier League club who do the right things. For him to choose us over a lot of other clubs is a massive statement.”
John Eustace praises fringe players
Eustace continued by praising the visitors, but also hailing some of the fringe players that he gave starts too.
“Plymouth are in a good moment and have fantastic momentum, they have a good manager there who plays the right way. They did well today and we weren’t at our best. We knew they would have a lot of the ball.
“We played players that haven’t had many starts – Koji (Miyoshi), JJ (Jordan James) – in tough positions to try and stop them playing. I thought Bacuna was outstanding against the boy Mumba and Buchanan was good against Whittaker.
“We weren’t great with the ball, which was disappointing. We need to be better when we have the ball but we were always a threat on the transition. I think they had two or three chances from balls over the top and John Ruddy pulled off a couple of good saves.
“We knew it was going to be difficult and when you’re putting on exciting young players – Jay, George Hall, Manny Longelo – at the end, if we defend the box properly then we will have a chance on the turnover.”
Birmingham’s next match is at home to Cardiff City on Tuesday evening, in the EFL Cup second round.