Blues in good spirits for Cats crunch
Birmingham City remain in the Championship relegation zone, despite hitting back for a 1-1 draw at Preston on Saturday.
The Blues, who host Sunderland in a crucial clash at St Andrews tomorrow week, will go into the game in good spirits, with just one defeat in their last four league games.
Birmingham boss Steve Cotterill said: “We are going home disappointed because we felt that our performance merited the win.
“We’ve been playing well for a little while now, this isn’t a coincidence, this is starting to be a good, consistent team.
“I really think it’s difficult to criticise the lads (at Preston), the effort they have put in has been tremendous.
“There are no negatives to come out of today other than we know we have deserved three points.” Ben Davies put North End ahead in the first half, against the run of play. Paul Gallagher’s delivery from a free-kick was only headed across his own goal by Marc Roberts, where Davies was on hand to tap in his first Preston goal at the far post. But Birmingham were the better side and their pressure paid off after 63 minutes, with a helping hand from some calamitous defending.
Paul Huntington lost the ball to Jacques Maghoma and Chris Maxwell rushed from his goal to attempt to clear the danger, but he was easily rounded and the ball was played to Sam Gallagher, who slotted into the unguarded net to earn a well-deserved point.
Before facing Sunderland, Birmingham have an FA Cup fourth round tie to look forward to, away to Huddersfield on Saturday.