Blackpool 1-0 Birmingham City

By Oliver Osborn

Birmingham City have lost their first match under Gary Rowett after a 1-0 defeat to bottom of the table Blackpool.

A goal from Steven Davies early in the second half was enough to split the two sides in an evenly fought match at Bloomfield Road.

But it was the home side who came out with three points and left the visitors wondering how they couldn’t continue in their good run of form.

The result ended Rowett’s five game unbeaten start at Blues and gave his predecessor  Lee Clark his first victory as the Seasiders boss.

One of Clark’s signings for Birmingham over the summer, David Cotterill, almost gave Blues an early lead with a free kick from 30 yards out, but Joe Lewis did well to push the shot away from danger.

The home side also created a chance for themselves from a dead ball after Chris Eagles’ cross was headed just over by Peter Clarke.

Just after the half hour mark Demarai Gray came inches away from giving the away side the lead after getting a shot away on the edge of the box and his deflected effort fizzed just past the post.

From the resulting corner, Stephen Gleeson crossed to the back post and centre-half Michael Morrison failed the head home from close range when Lewis misjudged the flight of the ball.

Blackpool started to grow into the game following the interval and it wasn’t long until Steven Davies gave the hosts a 1-0 lead.

Ten minutes into the second half, a long punt forward from Lewis found Davies on the edge of the box.

The striker rolled his marker Paul Robinson and fired home past an out rushing Darren Randolph for a second goal in as many games.

Koby Arthur and Brek Shea were brought on to give the side more of a threat going forward, but Gary Rowett’s men never looked convincing in front of goal during the second half.

Jacob Murphy went close to embarrassing Randolph late on with a cheeky effort from close to the halfway line, but the goalkeeper managed to get back in time to palm it over.

The win for the Seasiders was just their second of the season and sees them move close to safety.

Next week, Blues face Reading while Blackpool travel to Charlton.

Blackpool manager Lee Clark: “I thought my team stuck to the game plan terrifically well.

“The feeling is the best feeling in the world in team sport at five o’clock on a Saturday – you cannot beat it with anything.

“But we’re not getting overexcited, we’ve still got a big job on our hands and we’ll keep progressing.”

Birmingham manager Gary Rowett: “We never got going. You felt it was one of those games. You knew it was going to be scrappy.

“I don’t think the pitch helped us play the way we wanted to play but you’ve got to manage that.

“There’s a lot of them playing against their old manager and I think some of them expended a lot of nervous energy in getting up for the game and I don’t think that helped them.”

Starting line up: Randolph; Caddis, Morrison, Robinson, Grounds; Cotterill (Duffy 85′), Davis, Gleeson, Gray (Arthur 71′); Novak (Shea 71′), Donaldson

Subs not used: Doyle, Eardley, Edgar, Reilly

Man of the match: Steven Davies