Birmingham City were yesterday defeated by a second from bottom Wigan Athletic side, putting Gianfranco Zola’s future at St.Andrews at serious doubt.

A former blue, Dan Burn, converted from a corner in the 19th minute to secure a much needed three-points for the championship strugglers.

The defeat means that Blues have won just two games in 17, a worrying figure which leaves the club just eight points above the drop-zone. It really does beg the question, how can Gianfranco Zola still be in the hot-seat?

There’s two possible reasons why the board haven’t made the decision to relieve the Italian of his duties. First of all, there’s the financial side of it, Zola was handed a two- and-a-half-year contract and would the club really want to pay off his wages given that he has only been in the job  since mid-December? Of course not.

The second reason is about pride and creditability. It seems as if the board don’t want to put their hands up and concede that a mistake was made. If somehow Zola was to turn this on its head and get to where the club’s owners want the team to be, they’d look like masterminds. At this moment in time, the likeliness of that happening looks fatally bleak. This cannot continue for much longer, the team cannot afford to be slightly flirting with relegation at this point in the season.

Zola can’t be single-handedly blamed, changing the club’s style of play after two seasons of counter-attacking football, half way through a tough championship season, is simply not going to work. Can Zola be given until pre-season, or is it too much of a risk to do that given how Blues have performed and where we sit in the table?

When Gary Rowett first took over the reins in 2014, he won 14 of his 21 opening points, Zola has managed to get just three points from 24 and has had more transfer funds to play with than Rowett ever did in his four-transfer windows at Blues combined.

The club are in desperate need of points, the stats don’t lie. If passing the ball well in phases won games, we’d be fine. Unfortunately, the championship doesn’t work like that.

Blues travel to Cardiff on Saturday, after the abysmal showing that Blues fans had to watch last night, the fans deserve a positive result.