Jay Stansfield

Stansfield times his runs into the box with real instinct, arriving on the shoulder of the last defender just as the ball is about to be played rather than a half second early or late. That movement helped fire Birmingham towards promotion after he joined from Exeter, where he had already shown a knack for scoring the goals that matter most in tense, tight matches. Football runs in his family, his father having built a career in the same position.

The tension for any young striker who inherits that kind of family story is carrying the weight of it without ever getting to ask the person who understood it best. Stansfield has handled that with a quiet maturity rather than letting attention around his background become a distraction from his performances. Whether he can keep finding goals against defences that know what to expect from him is the challenge ahead.