Colin wants to launch a home run

BIRMINGHAM City must not let teams come to St Andrew’s and leave with all three points.

That’s the view of Blues’ defender Maxime Colin, who was part of the side beaten by Preston on Saturday, their first home defeat of the campaign.

A first-half strike from North End striker Sean Maguire was enough to end Blues’ record and stop some of the momentum whicht had built up in recent weeks.

It was another slow start for Pep Clotet’s men, who struggled to respond to the visitors’ early goal, until the last quarter of the game brought about a period of consistent pressure.

And Colin believes his side must be on the front foot from the off, particularly in front of their own fans.

He said: “Before the game their manager was saying, ‘It will be tough to come here’.

“People know it is not easy to come here and take the points so we need to keep going, we need to have this mentality and keep going.

“People can’t come to St Andrew’s and then take the points home.

“We need to be hard to beat at home, with the crowd behind us.

“The last 20 minutes of the game, we need to start like that straight away, not let teams breathe and make them under pressure straight from the beginning and not wait until we concede a goal and then react.”

Preston midfielder Ben Pearson admitted Blues subjected his side to difficult periods at St Andrew’s.

Blues upped the tempo in the final quarter with Jacques Maghoma and Alvaro Gimenez coming off the bench.

They had a decent penalty shout when Ben Davies appeared to handle Colin’s cross and soon after, had the ball in the net, only for Gimenez to be deemed offside.

“It was two contrasting halves,’’ said Pearson.

“We withstood some sticky spells but in the end it’s a good result.”