Jay Stansfield produced one of his best displays for Birmingham City this season against Preston

Jay Stansfield seemed intent on doing everything but score during Birmingham City’s thrashing of Preston North End on Tuesday evening.

On his 150th Blues appearance, the forward adored for scoring goals transitioned to Blues’ creator-in-chief. Stansfield never looked like scoring, but he never stopped creating and that earned him a standing ovation when he was replaced by Marvin Ducksch in the 85th minute.

Chris Davies will credit Stansfield with ‘a pre-assist’ for Liam Millar’s opener because it was his first-time pass that set Patrick Roberts away to assist it and he teed up August Priske to score Blues’ third before half-time with an instinctive reverse pass.

It was a performance that pleased Davies who, the day before Blues played Preston, explained the coaching points he is currently working with Stansfield on to make him a more effective No.10.

“I think he’s shown a lot more composure on the ball,” Davies began. “What Jay has is elite energy, elite intensity – he will be the best pressing No.10 in this league and probably quite a few.

“He’s a goal threat. He makes intelligent runs in behind. What I’m asking him to do is something that he’s probably never had to focus on a lot, to drop in and link a little bit more with a target man the other side of him.

“With players like that, that are that energetic, it’s playing at the right rhythm and speed. There’s a time to slow it down, and that might be staying on the ball or taking extra touches, and there’s a time to quicken up which is a one-touch pass and a sprint in behind.

“Playing with different tempos to your game as a very active offensive midfield player is very important and that’s the stage I have been talking to Jay about.

“I’ve seen a good development of that and he needs to keep working.

“He played as a nine for 20 minutes at the weekend so he’s always got that on-the-shoulder No.9 instinctive striker mode that he loves, but I’ve liked his development a bit more involved in the build-up and playing at different speeds and different tempos.”

When Stansfield first joined Blues on loan from Fulham he outlined his preference for the No.10 position, but in his first two seasons with the club – including the League One-winning campaign after he became the club’s record signing – he primarily played up front.

Stansfield spent last season moving between positions nine and 10 in Blues’ 4-2-3-1 system and Davies has now settled on the latter.

Davies continued: “As you see with Priske, he’s 6ft4 and we use him as a bit of a focal point, we’ve gone for that type of striker a lot in the last six months. That means Jay is either competing in that position or at times off the left or a bit deeper.

“There’s a trend in football that the tens nowadays are more running tens, more dynamic than the old classic No.10 – don’t move, just stand there and do Cruyff turns – he’s not going to be that and they’ve gone anyway. You can’t have that anymore because of the nature of the game.”

Eyes will always gravitate towards numbers with attacking players and Davies will privately be thinking of ways to get Stansfield back on the scoresheet.

Stansfield has only scored three times in his last 42 matches in what has been the driest spell of his career but, more importantly, his performances have been consistently good this season.

"He’s certainly having a good season. To play regularly in the Championship – and we’re a decent Championship side – is definitely a feather in his cap.

"He’s played a lot of games consistently and gets through the games well. He just needs to keep going because he’s on a good path."