Birmingham City stat involving Wolves provides major benchmark | OneFootball

Blues have enjoyed a major short-term transformation at the beginning of the season

For one reason or another, Birmingham City have been the talk of League One this season.

But, the outside noise is yet to get under the skin of Chris Davies and his side, which, according to many, is the strongest squad in terms of quality and depth that the third tier has ever seen.

The former Tottenham Hotspur, Leicester City and Celtic boss' appointment came out of left-field in early June, but in the first two-and-a-half months of his tenure, Tom Wagner and Garry Cook's decision has been more-than justified as Blues have set a number of records straight in the early weeks of the campaign.

Understandably, many on the outside will point to the hefty and record-breaking transfer figures displayed throughout the summer, but a statistic which follows on from the 2-0 success over Bolton Wanderers on Tuesday night further highlights the remarkable short-term transformation and shift in mentality that has occurred at St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park.

Numerous sides with a highly-reputable stature have often fallen into League One and taken ample time to adjust to the rigours of the division, as well as being pinpointed as a major scalp for several opponents.

Some have argued that Blues have only shown their full capabilities on a handful of occasions in the first 11 outings of the season, which has been demonstrated with the occasional mishap and solitary defeat and below-par performance against Charlton Athletic earlier in the month.

“We’ve established a way of playing that is recognisable, I think the fans know what they are coming to see, and I don’t think there’s been any point of any game where we have lost our identity even though we’ve had moments where we haven’t been at our best,” Davies recently stated.

But besides that, the club recorded its strongest winning run since December 1946 with seven straight successes between August 17th and October 1st, as well as Davies' men becoming the first side in Birmingham's history to win nine out of the first eleven league encounters.

However, the key statistic to follow Tuesday's success that further echoes how strong the Second City outfit are in comparison to many of their counterparts, is that they hold two more points at this stage of the season than the record-breaking Wolverhampton Wanderers side of 2013/14.

Blues have accumulated 28 points out of a possible 33, whilst their West Midlands rivals, then managed by Kenny Jackett, had only taken 26 points from their first 11 games, before going on to break the divisional points record with an overall tally of 103.

Of course, it can be argued that Birmingham are in the position which they have been predicted to finish in, and the fact there is still much more room for growth is a mouth-watering prospect for those connected with the club, and a frightening prospect for their divisional counterparts.

Supporters would also take great satisfaction in taking such a record off their local rivals, which they are currently projected to do, scoring 12 less than Jackett's side, which saw the trio of Leigh Griffiths, Bakary Sako and Nouha Dicko responsible for 36 of their 89 goals, whilst Birmingham are on course to have a stronger defensive record despite only yielding three clean sheets so far this season.

Birmingham City would hope to emulate Wolverhampton Wanderers' rise after League One triumph

Wolves' immediate bounceback into the Championship ultimately laid the foundations for the remarkable sequence of events which soon followed, regardless of the club's current struggles in the Premier League.

A near-miss on the play-offs in their first season back in the second tier subsequently followed, but after just four seasons in the division, Nuno Espírito Santo moulded a side which romped to the title with 99 points, before a remarkable first season in the top-flight since 2012 ended with a foray into UEFA Europa League - reaching the Quarter-Finals.

However, where Birmingham's journey could differ is the make-up of a future squad, as only Matt Doherty featured in the top flight from Wolves' third tier days, whilst Wagner and Cook have made it a mantra that the current squad in B9 is able to compete at higher echelons after becoming an established and cohesive unit, as they target a Premier League return by 2026.

Whilst the Old Gold and Black haven't quite been able to sustain such high finishes in the years which have followed, it is yet another recent rapid rise in the West Midlands - similar to Aston Villa's well-documented journey into the UEFA Champions League five years after promotion - that can be used as an added incentive for the blue half of the Second City.