Garry Monk saluted his Birmingham players after they chalked up a fourth successive win in defeating Sheffield Wednesday 3-1 at St. Andrew’s.
It was a victory Monk admits Birmingham were lucky to achieve after they were subjected to a great deal of attacking pressure in a hectic opening 30 minutes.
Wednesday dominated the first half and Birmingham could not have complained if they had gone in at half-time trailing 4-1.
Steven Fletcher, who opened the scoring in the 19th minute, hit the post after 70 seconds, while Liam Palmer had two excellent chances to have increased the Owls’ lead.
Birmingham, to their credit, battled hard to stay in contention and were in no small way assisted
by Connor Mahoney’s 43rd-minute equaliser when the on-loan winger from Bournemouth recorded
his first goal for the club.
Wednesday, who have now conceded 12 of their 14 goals in the second half, again wilted badly
as Birmingham staged a powerful finish to snatch the points to extend their impressive unbeaten
run to 11, Lukas Jutkiewicz and Che Adams scoring in the last 10 minutes.
Monk said: “We got lucky in the first half an hour. They could have been two or three up and we could not have had any complaints as they would have thoroughly deserved that lead.
“We managed to get our first goal against the run of play and we were lucky to be in that position at half-time.
“The second half was what we should have been doing in the first period and managed to score the two second-half goals at the right time.
“The standard we are currently trying to setm we could not accept how we played in the opening 30
minutes when they could have been out of sight.
“It was our third game in a week and it took its toll but the overall picture is very satisfying. To keep extending our present run is massive credit to the players who got us through the game in the second period.
“Wins breed confidence but we are wary that we could lost the game against Wednesday in that first half-hour.”
Jos Luhukay, Wednesday’s manager, had mixed feelings after watching his side slip to their third successive defeat.
He admitted: “I think the result is very disappointing for us. We played two different halves. In the first we played very well when we scored our first goal.
“We had chances for second and third goals but Birmingham came back to equalise just before half-time.
“In the second period Birmingham created a lot of pressure and were more effective in taking their second and third goals.
“At the end we must learn from our poor defensive work and in our offensive moments we not effective. It was a very disappointing result for us but at the end Birmingham deserved to win.”
