Birmingham move out of bottom three after vital win against Ipswich

Birmingham lifted themselves out of the bottom three with a 1-0 Sky Bet Championship home success over Ipswich.

In a poor game, Blues sealed a vital victory with a first-half penalty from Jota as they chalked up their second successive home win.

Injury-hit Ipswich announced in the build-up to the game that manager Mick McCarthy would leave the club at the end of the season, and they put in a disappointing display.

It was from one rare attack from the visitors that Ipswich found themselves a goal down in the 21st minute.

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Birmingham goalkeeper David Stockdale’s long throw found Jacques Maghoma and he raced away down the left and into the penalty area where he was brought down by Adam Webster resulting in a penalty which was converted by Jota.

Only a brilliant save by Bartosz Bialkowski prevented a second Birmingham goal on the half hour.

A speculative long-range effort from Che Adams was deflected and Bialkowski found himself going the wrong way only to fling out his right leg to block the goal-bound shot.

With David Davis back in their side, Birmingham appeared to be a more compact unit and were able to produce several storming attacks which kept Webster and skipper Luke Chambers under a great deal of pressure in the Ipswich rearguard.

Clear-cut chances were few and far between, with industrious striker Martyn Waghorn lacking support to make any real impact against a solid Birmingham defence.

Ipswich attempted to raise their game in the second period and they were the better team as Birmingham resolutely defended their slender advantage.

Birmingham, however, were denied a more conclusive win when Bialkowski produced another quality save to keep out a Lukas Jutkiewicz header.

PA