gshc2020.com

Blues made a good start, creating a couple of chances to open the scoring.

The first came in the fourth minute when Jhon Solis dispossessed Malanda and was given the ball back by Tomoki Iwata. The Colombian turned and dragged his shot narrowly wide.

• Watch FREE Championship highlights | Latest EFL news and rumours
• Not got Sky? Latest Sky Sports deals or stream EFL games with no contract📺

Fourteen minutes later the hosts went from one end of the field to the other, freeing Carlos Vicente down the right. The winger back-heeled to Bright Osayi-Samuel, who picked out Luis Vazquez. After last weekend's horror miss at Derby, the Argentine did at least put his header on target but too close to Radek Vitek who tipped over.

Boro grew into the game with Amario Cozier-Duberry causing Birmingham huge problems down the right.

The Brighton loanee should have scored nine minutes before the break when Myles Peart-Harris picked him out with a pull-back but he scooped his shot over the bar.

The 21-year-old's influence grew and it was no surprise when Malanda hit him with a sweeping, 45th-minute diagonal and he weaved his way into the area to set up Max Arfsten. The American fired first-time into the top corner.

Chris Davies' side responded well after the restart and levelled 10 minutes in when Malanda lost possession to Iwata who then invited Solis to surge into the area. Just as the midfielder looked to be running out of angle, Liam Millar popped up to fire home his first Blues goal.

Four minutes later the home side were in front when Millar's deep corner was headed back into the six-yard box by Jay Stansfield. The ball pinballed around and eventually went in off Riley McGree.

With 20 minutes to go Iwata went close when he popped up at the near post to glance a Millar cross just over the bar.

The visitors pressed and made attacking substitutions with Tommy Conway, Kyle Joseph and Jeremy Sarmiento and they did push Birmingham on to the defensive.

The pressure eventually paid off with two minutes to go when Sebastian Berhalter curled over an inswinging free-kick which seemed to run harmlessly through to Beadle.

However, the goalkeeper fumbled four yards out and, while Joseph was unable to bundle home, Malanda did to send the travelling supporters home happy.

The managers

Birmingham's Chris Davies:

"The players are telling me that they thought that he had the two hands on the ball.

"I haven't seen the slowed down image of it, that would be the one to see but it's scandalous if he's had two hands on the ball and it's been missed, that can't happen.

"But it was a sickening way just from that deep set-piece, just whipped in one bounce. James has saved us many times and he's a fantastic goalkeeper, he's had a really good season.

"Like I said to him, these things happen. He knows, he's disappointed with that, but he's had a really good season."

Middlesbrough's Kim Hellberg:

"I think everyone knows we need to concede a little bit fewer goals, my mum at home watching the game can say that we need to concede fewer goals, but how are we doing that?

"The game today, for example, in that spell I don't think we're conceding chances, but we give away a massive amount of set plays from diving into tackles.

"We give away throw-ins instead of if we can clear it 50 yards higher up and then it's not into the box.

"That frustrates me a lot. So there's also managing those spells, absolutely, we have to work and do that better.

"We need to understand game management, how we suffer through those periods of time in a better way. I think it's how do you do that? That's the thing you work with and how do you summarise that to conceding fewer goals?

"So, in general there's things to work on, it would be odd otherwise, and there's things that are very, very good and a lot of praise for the players."

What the result means and next fixtures...

• Championship fixtures