After going in two goals down at the break, the Blues strengthened their position in the second period to win by five, a scoreline that left the gaffer ‘a little bit embarrassed’.

“It is not often we put in performances like that and today we were a mile off. Both boxes, aggression, work rate, it wasn’t there today. I don’t know why, we’ve had an extra day of rest than Birmingham have and I just felt we were lacking the real important bits. They scored with their first set-play and we had a chance before that to have scored.

“We put in as many good set-plays as they did but they got their heads on it. Third goal absolutely kills us because we started well. Give it away on the edge of their box, they break through and score. A little bit embarrassed by the score line but I’m very rarely embarrassed when I come in front of the cameras because this is a good group, and we have to make sure we learn from this and bounce back.”

The manager continued by saying: “We are missing players, another two centre-halves, Lansbury today as well. Hylton, Berry, Dan Potts, all people you regard as being strong men for us. We are lacking a bit of that and we are looking forward to getting them back.

“We’ve had two excellent performances and we have had two really poor performances.  Really disappointed today, we have to make sure we put it behind us because in seven days’ time we have another game.”