"I can guarantee that" - Birmingham City boss Chris Davies issues Alfie May prediction | OneFootball

The Blues boss has no concerns over May's current goal drought

Birmingham City manager Chris Davies has full confidence that Alfie May will start hitting the back of the net on a regular basis as the striker's current goal drought continued against Leyton Orient.

The 31-year-old has been League One's most potent frontman in recent seasons, scoring on 66 occasions for both Cheltenham Town and Charlton Athletic over the course of the past three seasons, before making a reported £775,000 move to St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park in July after Blues' relegation from the Championship.

Whilst Davies' side's unbeaten run in the third tier extended to 17 games with a 2-0 win over the O's courtesy of second-half strikes from Taylor Gardner-Hickman and Ethan Laird, May's individual run without a goal to 11 outings - his longest goalless streak in just under five years, where he went the same length without a goal for the Robins during the infancy of their League Two title-winning campaign.

However, the Blues boss has flipped such perspectives, looking at how May is continuously getting in the right areas to eventually end the aforementioned streak.

Chris Davies makes Alfie May prediction amid 11-game drought

Since joining Birmingham, the Gravesend-born forward has notched 11 goals in his first 42 appearances, with the last being his second in the 3-0 win away to Wigan Athletic on January 4th.

May has featured in 11 of Blues' 13 games in League One, the FA Cup and EFL Trophy since then. However, only four of those have come from the starting XI, with Tuesday's encounter in B9 his first league start since the 1-1 draw with Wrexham on January 23rd.

The striker missed two chances to find the back of the net against Orient, but Davies has continued to praise his overall game, and believes that the experienced player will still score goals on a regular basis for the remainder of his career.

“With strikers it’s the old adage of being in the right position, if you’re getting chances you should never worry,” the Blues boss said post-match via Birmingham Live.

“Alfie will score loads of goals for the rest of his career, I can guarantee that right now because he’s a brilliant finisher, but getting the chances is the key thing and he was there."

“He hit the bar and to be fair to Josh Keeley he made a good save with his trailing leg on the one-v-one. It’s the movement, the cleverness, the first touch, that’s what Alfie’s great at," the 39-year-old continued.

Davies concluded: “All strikers will think ‘I want to score’ and I know what Alfie is like, he will be putting pressure on himself, but he shouldn’t do because he will score. He’s a brilliant goalscorer."

Alfie May has still had a positive impact on Birmingham City's season

Regardless of the pressure May is putting on himself to end his barren run in front of goal, the attacker has still had a positive impact on Blues' season in all competitions.

In 30 league appearances, the former Doncaster Rovers man has played a part in 15 of Blues' 53 goals, and his movement has seen him drift out wide on occasions, linking up immensely well with 20-goal man, Jay Stansfield.

Of course, there is pressure on the outside for May to increase his output in the final 16 games of the season in Stansfield's short-term absence, whilst Davies is unsure whether Lyndon Dykes will return to fitness ahead of the EFL Trophy final against Peterborough United on April 13th after the Scotland international pulled up with a calf issue in last weekend's goalless draw against Reading.

However, the experienced man has to look on the positive side that he is still averaging 1.5 shots per game, further echoing Davies' stance on the matter, and that when one eventually finds the net, it could spark yet another purple patch for May, such as when he netted in all of his first four games for the West Midlands side, which included a strike against Wycombe Wanderers.

Former Blues academy manager Mike Dodds brings his Chairboys side up the M40 for a top two showdown at St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park this Saturday, giving Davies' men the chance to open up a 12-point gap on their nearest promotion rivals if victory is secured.