MONK PARTY LINE IS SAFETY FIRST FOR BLUES

AS Wolves’ post-match promotion party got under way, Birmingham boss Garry Monk was steeling himself for more rounds in the relegation fight.

The derby defeat at Molineux saw Blues slip a place to 21st, just two points above the drop zone.

Despite trailing 1-0 to Diogo Jota’s 21st-minute goal, the visitors were always in the game and even after defender Harlee Dean’s dismissal on 52 minutes, might have equalised.

But Benik Afobe put the game beyond them late on and now Monk must rally his men to go again against Sheffield United, QPR and Fulham on the final day. Monk (right) said: “There’s no party for us. I couldn’t care less about anything other than my players and my team.

“Everyone is committed and everyone is fighting and I’m going to do that in the remaining games as well. We knew it was going to be difficult, but even with 10 men we were in the game. We’ve three massive games to come and that’s what we’re focused on.

“As I said to them at the end, yes we wanted points but we’re not going to feel sorry for ourselves.”

City nearly took a shock early lead when Maxime Colin had two efforts saved by John Ruddy.

Wolves’ opener come from a well-worked move, with Romain Saiss releasing wing-back Matt Doherty down the right. He played a perfect low ball across the six-yard box behind the defence and in front of keeper David Stockdale for Jota to stab in.

Birmingham were not in the mood to roll over, putting in a series of crunching challenges on Ruben Neves and Jota.

But any hopes the visitors had were all-but ended when a terrible pass by Michael Morrison gifted Helder Costa a free run on goal. Dean took him out and was ordered off.

Lukas Jutkiewicz had a chance to equalise but Ruddy denied him and on 87 minutes sub Afobe sealed the win with a right-foot chip for his fifth goal since returning in January.