Inside a proper Birmingham City party: Tom Wagner’s Villa jibe and ‘hands off’ Chris Davies

The mood at Birmingham City’s end-of-season awards dinner was a stark contrast to 12 months ago.

A record-breaking season in League One, which saw Blues accumulate 111 points, was the perfect antidote after a first relegation to the third tier in 30 years.

To quote Tom Wagner, ‘The comeback is greater than the setback’.

Everyone who listened to Wagner’s opening gambit at the ICC building on Sunday evening is certain better days lie ahead. The American knew exactly how to work the room.

His opening line set the tone. ‘Tommy Wagner is a Blue, he hates Villa’ reverberated around the room as Wagner made his way to the stage. To which he replied: “I do, I really hate Villa!”

Wagner then implored those sat around table 111 to look underneath. A bottle of champagne was waiting. “We thought that number was special.”

Wagner added: “One hundred and eleven points. My script says it’s a Football League record but f*** that, it’s a world record.

“To all those who doubt us, they are afraid what will happen when they see 62,000 in our home stadium.

“We were told we would be in for a shock. F****** shocking it was.”

Wagner revealed that Blues’ academy has been awarded Category One status after their audit — a huge win for Knighthead who have ploughed funds into the development of the next generation.

He also paid tribute to Chris Davies, who has overseen and driven this remarkable season.

“Chris Davies. Appropriately named Manager of the Season. You’re not going anywhere.” A ‘hands off’ warning early.

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Then onto the awards. It was fitting that Jay Stansfield retained the first two — top goal scorer and Young Player of the Year — but it was never going to be a clean sweep this time around.

Tomoki Iwata claimed the Goal of the Season for his rocket against Newcastle but Christoph Klarer was the big winner.

Blues’ Austrian defender collected the Players’ Player of the Year and Supporters’ Player of the Year — and it wasn’t even close.

The Women’s team were in attendance too, to their credit after a devastating end to their season earlier in the day. Amy Merricks’ side missed out on promotion to the Women’s Super League in a final day shoot-out with London City Lionesses.

Neve Herron won the Young Player of the Year and Supporters’ Player of the Year, while Simone Magill took Players’ Player and the top scorer awards. Shannon Cooke won Goal of the Season for her stupendous strike against Sheffield United.

The men were understandably more jubilant and Taylor Gardner-Hickman, Ethan Laird and Alfie May were the big spenders in the auction. Having already donated part of their bonuses to the club’s foundation, Gardner-Hickman boosted their coffers further by paying £3,000 for a signed Tom Brady shirt.

Laird forked out for a signed Lukas Jutkiewicz collection and May went big for a UB40 experience. Maybe May can give us a rendition of Forever True at St Andrew’s next season.

It was a night to remember for Blues and their supporters. Finally, something to really celebrate.

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