RUDDY HELL AS BLUES GO ON RAMPAGE
PRESTON goalkeeper Declan Rudd helped hand Birmingham City a thumping victory after making a huge mistake at St Andrew’s.
With no-one around him, Rudd completely missed Maikel Kieftenbeld’s hopeful punt into the area and watched in horror as the ball rolled between his legs and into the net.
Jacques Maghoma then made the game safe for Birmingham with their second goal in the 61st minute, before Che Adams added a third 13 minutes from time.
Preston boss Alex Neil insisted he would not make Rudd a “scapegoat”.
He said: “He made a mistake. It cost us the first goal, but we could then go and repair it, which we didn’t do. There is a lot more that went wrong than that mistake.
“I don’t really need to say much to Declan. As a professional player you know you made a mistake and you need to let it go. There is nothing you can do about it now.
“It was a really bad day at the office for us and I think the most disappointing thing was that towards the end it didn’t look like we had that belief to get ourselves back into the game.”
Birmingham counterpart Garry Monk was delighted after his side made it backto-back wins following their derby victory against Aston Villa.
They are now four points off the playoffs, but Monk insists he is not thinking about promotion.
“It is totally not in our thinking at all. We deal with reality,” he said. “This club have been facing relegation on the last day in three out of the last five years.
“We are fighting and trying to be better than what we have been before.”
Birmingham made the initial early running with Lukas Jutkiewicz seeing a second-minute header flash wide from Kristian Pedersen’s cross, before City captain Michael Morrison had his header from Connor Mahoney’s corner saved by Rudd. Birmingham had claims for a penalty rejected in the 22nd minute after Adams crashed to the ground following a challenge from Jordan Storey with referee David Webb waving away their appeals for a spot-kick.
But Preston came closest to breaking the deadlock in their first real attack in the 28th minute. Louis Moult tried his luck with a spectacular overhead kick that keeper Lee Camp had to push to safety. But Birmingham ended the half as they had begun it – on the attack – with Jutkiewicz flashing a shot into the side netting. They made the breakthrough at the start of the second period when they were gifted the lead by Rudd’s howler.
Birmingham quickly tried to put the game beyond the reach of Preston with Gardner being denied by Rudd before Maghoma lifted a close-range shot over the bar. Maghoma proved to be more clinical when a second chance presented itself following a cross from Maxime Colin. He skilfully controlled the ball on his chest before riding two challenges and volleying home.
Adams then added some gloss to the final scoreline when he chased down a pass from Kieftenbeld and curled a low shot past the outstretched hand of Rudd.