The 2015–16 season was Birmingham City Football Clubs 113th season in the English football league system and fifth consecutive season in the Football League Championship. It covered the period from 1 July 2015 to 30 June 2016. Their Championship record, of 63 points accrued via 16 wins, 15 draws and 15 losses resulting in a tenth-place finish, was exactly the same as in 2014–15. Tenth was the lowest position the team had occupied all season. The average attendance at league matches, of 17,602, was some 9% higher than in 2014–15. As with all clubs in the top two tiers of English football, Birmingham entered the 2015–16 FA Cup in the third round; they lost in that round at home to Premier League club AFC Bournemouth. In the League Cup, they progressed through two rounds before being eliminated by Aston Villa, also of the Premier League, in the third.
Thirty-two players made at least one appearance in first-team competition, of whom six were loan signings and one was registered on a short-term contract; there were eighteen different goalscorers. Team captain Michael Morrison appeared in 49 of the club's 50 fixtures over the season, and played in every minute of the 46 Championship matches. Clayton Donaldson was top goalscorer with 11 goals, all of which were scored in league competition.
Background and pre-season After narrowly avoiding relegation to League One in 2014, a poor start to the 2014–15 season with only two wins by mid-October brought manager Lee Clark the sack. Under caretaker management, the team lost 8–0 at home to AFC Bournemouth to drop to 23rd place in the table. Burton Albion manager and former Birmingham player Gary Rowett took over, strengthened the defence by bringing in Charlton Athletic's Michael Morrison, initially on loan, and, with the aid of other loan signings including Italian international forward Diego Fabbrini, led them to a 10th-place finish.
First-team players released at the end of the 2014–15 season included Callum Reilly, Nikola Žigić, Matt Green, Olly Lee, Gavin Gunning, youngsters Amari'i Bell and Will Packwood, and long-serving goalkeeper Colin Doyle. First-choice goalkeeper Darren Randolph chose to leave when his contract expired. Free-transfer signings for 2015–16 included winger Jacques Maghoma, previously with Sheffield Wednesday, and two goalkeepers, Adam Legzdins, who started his career with Birmingham but never played for their first team, and former Polish international Tomasz Kuszczak. Undisclosed fees were paid for Groningen's KNVB Cup-winning captain Maikel Kieftenbeld, a Dutch under-21 international defensive midfielder, and Danish forward Nicolai Brock-Madsen; the release clause on Kieftenbeld's contract was widely reported at €250,000, and according to BBC Sport, the fee for Brock-Madsen was "believed to be in the region of £500,000, with possible add-ons taking it up to £1m." Birmingham made one loan signing: attacking midfielder Jon Toral joined from Arsenal for the season. Out-of-contract players who signed new contracts included club captain Paul Robinson, experienced defender Jonathan Spector, and youngsters Nick Townsend, Charlee Adams, Koby Arthur and Viv Solomon-Otabor, the club extended the contracts of defenders Jonathan Grounds and Paul Caddis, top scorer Clayton Donaldson, attacking midfielder Andy Shinnie, and wingers David Cotterill and the in-demand Demarai Gray.
In connection with the club's 140th anniversary in 2015–16, both home and away kits echoed the past. The home kit reproduced the original shirt from 1875, blue with a white sash, with white shorts and blue socks; supporters could pay for their names to be woven into the sash. The away kit reprised the "German flag" kit worn very occasionally in the 1970s, with a yellow right side and sleeve, a broad red central panel, and black left side and sleeve, black shorts and yellow socks with black tops. Both shirts carried intertwined club initials instead of the globe and ball badge. The kits, supplied by Carbrini, bore the logo of sponsors EZE Group, an entertainment and leisure company.
After a training camp in mainland Europe, Birmingham City's pre-season programme continued with friendly matches away to Nuneaton Town, Kidderminster Harriers, Northampton Town, Shrewsbury Town and Burton Albion. They also faced Benfica B at St George's Park. Their only home friendly was against Leicester City.
+ Pre-season match detailsDateOpponentsVenueResultScoreF–AScorersAttendanceRefs14 July 2015Nuneaton TownAW3–0Novak 25', Shinnie 70', Davis 73'1,07118 July 2015Kidderminster HarriersAD1–1Lowry 82'2,80121 July 2015Shrewsbury TownAW2–0Thomas 2', Donaldson 15'1,91921 July 2015Northampton TownAD2–2Gray 3', Novak 76'1,67525 July 2015Burton AlbionAL0–23,39327 July 2015Benfica BNL0–1n/a1 August 2015Leicester CityHL2–3Cotterill 23', Gray 25'7,026
Football League Championship
August–September Unlike in recent seasons, there were only three debutants in the opening-day fixture, at home to Reading. With all senior players available for selection, the team lined up in manager Gary Rowett's preferred 4–2–3–1 formation with Kuszczak in goal, Caddis and Grounds at full back, Spector and Morrison at centre back, Kieftenbeld alongside Stephen Gleeson in defensive midfield, Gray and Cotterill as wide midfielders, and Toral in support of lone striker Donaldson. Either side of half-time, Birmingham took a two-goal lead via Cotterill's deflected free kick and Toral's header from Donaldson's cross. Kuszczak's fumble led to the visitors making the score 2–1, but well into stoppage time, substitute David Davis's challenge conceded a penalty. Kuszcazk atoned for his earlier error by parrying the kick, and Reading's Simon Cox failed to convert the rebound.
Away to Burnley, Birmingham twice took the lead, first when Toral ran on to Donaldson's through ball and finished with a first-time shot from the edge of the penalty area, and then via Caddis's penalty, and Cotterill hit the post with a free kick, but with five minutes left, Matt Taylor's powerful free kick earned the hosts a point. Birmingham's penalty caused controversy: there seemed to be little contact by the defender on Donaldson, whose post-match claim that "You get told if you get a slight touch go down" prompted accusations of cheating. The visit to Brentford, scheduled for 18 August, was postponed six days before the scheduled date of 18 August because the hosts needed to re-lay the Griffin Park pitch on an emergency basis. Unusually, they agreed to reimburse supporters for non-refundable travel costs already incurred.
Against Derby County, Gleeson's deflected shot from distance – his first goal for the club – gave Birmingham the lead, which Toral should have increased, but the visitors equalised after an hour, had striker Chris Martin yellow-carded for simulation when he appeared to have been fouled inside the area, and hit the frame of the goal three times, including an excellent save from Kuszczak to turn Andi Weimann's shot onto the post and catch the rebound. After the game, Rowett made comparisons with some of the richer clubs in the division, claiming that although his "team of free transfers and players bought with someone's pocket money" were "more than matching teams", they were "always disappointed coming in we haven't done a little bit more." The second goal of Gleeson's Birmingham career opened the scoring in the club's first League visit to his former club, Milton Keynes Dons: he curled Donaldson's cutback over the goalkeeper into the corner of the net. Later in the game, he was stretchered off with an ankle injury that proved less serious than initially feared. To complete a 2–0 win, substitute Maghoma ran on to Donaldson's through ball and placed it wide of the goalkeeper.
DonaldsonBirmingham's leading scorer in 2014–15made up for this season's goal drought with a first-half hat-trick at home to Bristol City. The third goal came from a penalty awarded for a foul on Toral; Bristol City's manager, Steve Cotterill, thought Toral should have been booked for simulation. Regular penalty-taker Caddis allowed Donaldson to take the kick to complete his hat-trick, and a Grounds header completed a 4–2 win. After five league matches with an unchanged starting eleven, Rowett brought in Maghoma for Gray for the visit of Nottingham Forest, who inflicted Birmingham's first defeat of the season and became the first team to prevent them scoring. Forest scored after 54 minutes, after which Gray and league debutants Brock-Madsen and Solomon-Otabor entered the game, but in vain. Rowett was disappointed by the way the team "became a little frantic and a little bit too hurried and desperate on the ball and did not show enough quality."
Neal Eardley, returning to league football after nearly a year out injured, lasted 44 minutes of the visit to Ipswich Town before dislocating his shoulder. On his first start of the season, Shinnie exploited a defensive error to play Cotterill in for the opening goal, which was equalised ten minutes later via a penalty awarded against Spector, a decision that divided opinion. The flatness of their second consecutive home defeat, 2–0 to bottom-of-the-table Rotherham United, was arguably a reaction to the midweek League Cup defeat at Aston Villa. September ended with the rearranged visit to Brentford; since the original date, the club had sold their 2014–15 top scorer Andre Gray, sacked their manager, and appointed former Birmingham captain Lee Carsley in his place. With Shinnie injured, Rowett brought Davis into a three-man defensive midfield, and unexpectedly gave club captain Robinson his first league start in several months. A 2–0 win via Morrison's header from a corner and Gleeson's long ball that Donaldson chipped over the goalkeeper left Birmingham in fifth place, six points behind leaders Brighton & Hove Albion.
October–November Birmingham prolonged Leeds United's run without a home win courtesy of a fine performance by Gray, capped by a powerful shot from inside the penalty area for his first goal of the season, two saves by Kuszczak, and a stoppage-time goal from substitute Maghoma. Their own winning run continued at home to Queens Park Rangers, when they came from behind via Robinson's header from Gray's free kickhis second goal for the club in 127 matchesand a second-half penalty converted by Caddis after Donaldson was fouled, and away to bottom club Bolton Wanderers, when Robinson and Gray repeated their partnership for the only goal of the match after 20 minutes. What the BBC's reporter called "some desperate Blues defending", aided by the introduction of Spector as a sweeper to protect the back four, helped Birmingham hold their lead and go second in the table. Rowett retained that formation for the visit to Hull City, but the hosts profited from the additional freedom available to their midfield and won 2–0. On the anniversary of Rowett's first match in charge, a goalless draw away to Wolverhampton Wanderers, Birmingham lost 2–0 at home to the same opponents. He was critical of the team's lack of quality, feeling they "needed to be more inventive and show more composure on the ball."