Tomoki Iwata was on the scoresheet again last night as Birmingham City won 4-0 away to Shrewsbury in the Football League Trophy.
The midfielder left Celtic on Transfer Deadline Day to join the League One leaders, making an immediate impact with three goals in seven appearances.
During 18 months at Celtic Iwata was mainly used as a deep lying midfielder which partly explains his goal return of just one, away to Hearts from starting in 18 matches which included a few in central defence including the 2023 Scottish Cup Final win over Inverness Caley Thistle.
With Luke McCowan signed from Dundee Brendan Rodgers took the decision to sell Iwata to his former assistant Chris Davies where the midfielder appears to have found the place to kick start his career.
Shrews 0 – blues 2
IWATA #BCFC #KRO pic.twitter.com/kginl9B7SA
— CMF (@Ohffs1984) October 8, 2024
Iwata was substituted at half time last night with Davies telling the Birmingham Live:
Tomoki got a knock on the ankle that he felt he couldn’t run off in the end. I’m not sure on the extent of it, I don’t think it looks too bad on first look, but we will see tomorrow.
After suffering relegation on the final day of last season Birmingham look well placed for automatic promotion with Wrexham their likely rivals to win the League One title, Birmingham are currently in top place with 22 points from nine matches.
He’s far too good a player for that level of football.
Hope we remembered the sell-on clause….
Like many on here, I liked Tomoki Iwata, there’s a really good footballer in there. Disappointed to see him leave.