John Eustace and Sabri Lamouchi in ‘disagreement’ after Birmingham City 0-2 Cardiff City

Birmingham City manager John Eustace was quick to claim his side did not deserve to lose as Cardiff City earned a vital 2-0 victory at St Andrew’s on Tuesday evening. The visitors’ newly-appointed head coach, Sabri Lamouchi, had a very different opinion post-match as he expressed his pride at the Bluebirds’ first win since Bonfire Night.

It was a tightly-fought contest for much of the 90 minutes, with both teams going direct with long balls and negating each other for the most part – until Perry Ng made a sudden breakthrough. Placing the ball down for a tight-angled free-kick about 25 yards from goal, the 26-year-old swept a beautiful strike over the wall and into the top left-hand corner to give Cardiff the lead late on.

Blues reacted with plenty of energy as they pushed for an equaliser in the dying moments, but the visitors put the game beyond doubt in added time. Substitute attacker Callum Robinson struck hard, beating a disappointed John Ruddy at his near post to make sure of a vital three points. Despite a lacklustre showing from Birmingham, head coach Eustace thought a draw would have been fairer.

“I don’t think we deserved to lose. It was a very scrappy game - a typical championship game,” Eustace said post-match. “Both teams canceled each other out and the manner we lost the game was from a fantastic free kick – that was the difference. We missed [Kevin] Long today - he was poorly last night, and he was really missed. Harlee came in and did very well in his first game in a couple of months.

“The opposition set up differently and it was difficult to get going. They went very long and direct and I thought we stood up to it well, winning lots of second balls in midfield. We weren’t great going forward and didn’t look like a threat, which was disappointing. The lads going again after an emotional night [beating West Brom], it might’ve been a bit much. We would’ve taken a draw but it’s important we don’t get too down,” Eustace continued.

Recording just one shot on target all game with a tame Lukas Jutkiewicz header in the 51st minute, Blues were toothless going forward and lacked urgency until it was too late. Cardiff, meanwhile, looked far more eager to go and claim all three points despite the lack of confidence they had going into the game. Lamouchi, much unlike Eustace, thought his team were good value for their victory.

“We deserved the win,” Lamouchi told the media post-match. “I’m very proud. What a fighting spirit and mentality – and what a goal from Ng. Yesterday we worked on the free-kicks, actually, so I knew [he could do it]. In the two weeks [I’ve been here], it’s enough to know all of them and they know me very well and what I’m asking from them. It was a great attitude from all of them,” Lamouchi said.