Stansfield close to living Wembley dream with Blues

Jay Stansfield's winner against Charlton on Saturday was his 20th goal in all competitions this season

When Jay Stansfield made massive headlines by signing for Birmingham City for an eight-figure fee on transfer deadline day in August, playing in the Vertu Trophy final was maybe not top of his agenda.

It is safe to say, in fact, that it was not even on Vertu's agenda.

When this year's version of the EFL's 44-year-old competition began in September, it was still known as the Bristol Street Motors Trophy, sponsored since November 2023 by the 100-year-old Birmingham car dealership whose original site essentially sits two left turns, straight on at the roundabout and a right away from St Andrew's.

In November 2024, when this season's competition was already well under way, it was renamed again and now carries the name of their head company Vertu.

This week League One leaders Blues hope that Stansfield will have a major say in whether they can beat Bradford City in Tuesday's first semi-final at St Andrew's and book a "dream" Wembley final on 13 April against the winners of the second semi between Wrexham and Peterborough United a week on Wednesday, 26 February.

"You dream of playing at Wembley as a kid," said Stansfield, who has never played at the national stadium. "For us to be so close to that happening is a great feeling. It's just up to us to get the job done on the night. It's a massive occasion for the club.

"We know our qualities," he told BBC Sport. "And if we can get through and get to Wembley, it would be an unbelievable day. It's really exciting for us all, as individuals and as a club."

Jay Stansfield came off the bench to hit Blues' quarter-final winner at Stevenage

Birmingham were relegated from the Championship in May and have only played in the third tier of English football four times before, but they have a proud record in the EFL Trophy.

They have twice won the competition in its various forms - as the Leyland DAF Cup in 1990-91, beating Tranmere Rovers 3-2 in the final, and as the Auto Windscreens Shield in 1994-95, when they beat Carlisle United and their matchwinner Paul Tait made the headlines.

After drawing with League Two leaders Walsall in their opening group game this term before losing a penalty shoot-out, Blues won their next two comfortably, winning 4-0 at Shrewsbury and then beating Fulham's Under-21s 7-1, a game in which Stansfield netted twice.

Since reaching the knockout stages, Blues have been on the road, winning 2-1 at another of Stansfield's old clubs Exeter, then twice beating League Two opposition - Swindon 2-1 and Stevenage 1-0, where Stansfield came off the bench to hit a late winner.

But now they are back at St Andrew's for the Bradford semi-final - and this time it will be in front of a sold-out capacity 29,000 fans, only just short of the competition record outside of Wembley - Coventry City's 31,054 at the Ricoh Arena for their semi-final first leg defeat by eventual winners Crewe Alexandra in 2013.

Again Birmingham face League Two opposition this time round.

Bradford are third in League Two on the back of their home record, second only to leaders Walsall. But, despite having won only three times in 15 league games on the road, they have won all their four away games in the Trophy - at Mansfield, Stockport, Aston Villa U21s and Rotherham.

"They're up at the top of League Two for a reason," noted Stansfield. "They will have quality so we just have to respect them and go out and show our qualities and try to do what we do best.

"Coming to our stadium is obviously a massive place to come. A lot of teams do what they think is going to stop us playing and sit behind the ball.

"But we train the way we play and we're learning a lot about how to break down big blocks. We're used to teams coming and dropping off with us but we're getting really good at breaking teams down and getting results.

"We don't take any team lightly. In football, anything can happen. You always have to be prepared to come up against a good team. But we know what we need to do and how good we need to be. It's all down to us now."