Sitting back far too early costs Blues chance of win

CHRIS Davies felt Birmingham City should have beaten Charlton Athletic - but conceded his players 'went into protective mode too early.

- By ALEX DICKEN

Blues' Christoph Klarer (No.4) scores from a header and celebrates at St Andrew's. Below, Charlton defender Kayne Ramsay battles for possession with Jay Stansfield

Blues were on course for a fifth straight home victory at halftime thanks to Christoph Klarer's pinpoint header but a sluggish start to the second half invited Charlton pressure and substitute Tyreece Campbell made them pay.

Davies said: "I thought we got off to a really good start, I was really happy with the first half, I thought we played some really good football.

"I knew they were going to be that man-to-man press and it's not always simple to play through it but I thought it was some of our best moves through a team with great linkup play. I really liked that.

"We scored a set piece goal, Demarai [Gray] hit the post, Patrick [Roberts] forced a save, I thought we were really good looking for the second goal.

"Second half we've come out and we haven't got back into that rhythm quickly enough. It's taken us to concede for us to get back to that again. It felt like we went into protective mode a little bit too early.

"You expect an away team to have a spell, maybe five or 10 minutes in a game, but within that they obviously scored their equalising goal. I do think the football could have been better in that first 15-20 minutes of the second half.

"We had to bounce back from that. I thought we showed it right to the very end, there was no lack of effort, we had a couple of moments. The keeper has made a very good save off Dimmy's solo effort, Lewis [Koumas] has a reasonable chance with the header."