Blues season still a 'stepping stone' - Stansfield

Birmingham City striker Jay Stansfield says they have to see this season as a "stepping stone" to realising their ambition of a Premier League return despite the disappointment of missing out on the Championship play-offs.

Under their ambitious American owners, Blues were hoping to follow their record-breaking promotion from League One last term by returning to the top flight after a 15-year absence.

With 13 games to go in late February, Birmingham were in seventh place and only two points off the play-off spots, but a subsequent run of only two wins in 10 games ultimately ended their hopes.

Stansfield, who scored his first goal in 14 games in all competitions in Wednesday's 2-1 win over Preston North End, said they must take stock of what they have achieved in a short space of time.

"Other teams that get promoted from League One to the Championship will settle for staying in the Championship," he told BBC Radio WM.

"For us, there's a lot of ambition around the club right now, but sometimes you've got to look at it - the Championship is a hard league, [but] this season obviously we wanted to get promoted, that's not going to happen now, but it's a stepping stone in the right direction.

"This season has been a good learning curve for all of us and we can take that into next season and we all know how to play the Championship now."

Stansfield's goal against Preston was his 11th of the season and first since 7 February.

After moving for a tier-three record £15m from Fulham at the end of August 2024, the 23-year-old scored 19 goals as Blues romped to the League One title with an EFL-record 111 points.

This season, after helping England defend their European Under-21 Championship title last summer, Stansfield's return has reflected his move into a slightly deeper position behind the main striker under Chris Davies in recent weeks.

"I think the season's been up and down for me," Stansfield said. "It was a long summer, obviously with the Euros, and I think I've not scored the goals I wanted to score.

"But I've made sure I've turned up when times have been tough and I've gone out and stuck my chest out and just got on with it.

"I can't thank the gaffer enough for still having faith in me to go out and be able to deliver in different ways.

"I try every season to score more goals than I did the season before and obviously last season was my best season but I feel this season I've been able to contribute in different ways, get goals, get assists as I'm playing a different role at the moment as the third midfielder.

"It's sort of a new position for me and I'm looking forward to cracking that and going again next season."