Blues can get out of this – Monk

New Birmingham City manager Garry Monk is without a win from his first two matches, but has seen enough to believe his side will stay up.

Blues stayed third-bottom after Saturday’s 3-2 loss at high-flying Cardiff amd Monk said: “The first half was one of those times where we didn’t play too badly but we didn’t defend well enough in the three situations.

“I was very interested to see how we reacted in the second half because the capabilities of the squad was a reason why I came here, and that was exactly what we should be doing.

“We defended better and created chances. We had a great chance to make it 3-2 with 20 minutes to go which would have made it really interesting.

“The lesson has to be learned that we can’t give periods away, we have to do what we did in the second half right from the start, and that begins today, not before kick-off against Hull next week. We have to change now.”

Nathaniel Mendez-Laing, Craig Bryson and Callum Paterson had Cardiff 3-0 clear at half-time.

Ex-Sunderland midfielder Craig Gardner replied with a disputed penalty early in the second half, for a pull on Marc Roberts’ shirt, before Maxime Colin scored a late second for the visitors.