Bristol City 0-1 Birmingham: Harlee Dean heads winner for Blues

Report and highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Bristol City and Birmingham at Ashton Gate as a Harlee Dean header sealed a narrow victory for Aitor Karanka's Blues on Saturday afternoon

Saturday 5 December 2020 18:40, UK

Captain Harlee Dean was Birmingham's match-winner in a 1-0 Sky Bet Championship victory over high-flying Bristol City at Ashton Gate.

The centre-back took advantage of poor marking at an 80th-minute corner to rise and powerfully head home Jeremie Bela's cross from the left.

Blues also hit a post through Ivan Sanchez and had a confident penalty appeal rejected in an excellent second-half performance.

The Robins were out of sorts for much of the game and had goalkeeper Dan Bentley to thank for keeping the scoreline respectable.

Head coach Dean Holden made one change from Bristol City's 2-1 midweek victory at QPR, bringing in Tommy Rowe for Jay Dasilva, while naming young striker Sam Bell, son of former Ashton Gate favourite Mickey Bell, on the bench.

Blues boss Aitor Karanka made five alterations in personnel from the home defeat by Barnsley and switched to a 4-2-3-1 formation.

With midfielders Adam Nagy and Chris Brunt protecting the hosts' back four and Maikel Kieftenbeld and Ivan Sunjic doing a similar job for Birmingham, the first 26 minutes passed without either goalkeeper being tested.

The home side then created the only worthwhile chance of the first half, Antoine Semenyo's header inside the box setting up Callum O'Dowda for a close-range shot, bravely saved by Neil Etheridge.

Nahki Wells fired over for Bristol City from the corner of the box on 39 minutes, but the whistle for the interval brought to an end a poor half which had seen the teams cancel each other out.

Home skipper Tomas Kalas was in the thick of the action at both ends when the second half got under way.

First the centre-back had a shot cleared off the line by Maxime Colin. Then at the other end he looked fortunate not to concede a penalty when an outstretched arm blocked Marc Roberts' header.

Semenyo fired over as both teams looked to up the tempo. Bentley had to make his first save on 62 minutes, leaping to his left to keep out a swerving shot from Bela.

Suddenly Birmingham were surging forward with confidence. Sanchez hit the foot of the near post with an angled drive before Bentley produced a brilliant save to tip over Sunjic's curling effort from outside the box.

Holden had seen enough and sent on Tyreeq Bakinson for Brunt. Karanka responded by replacing Jon Toral with Alen Halilovic on 71 minutes.

Halilovic was soon involved, sending a low shot from 20 yards narrowly wide, and it was no more than Birmingham deserved when Dean put them in front.

Holden made two double substitutions late on, sending on Bell for his debut, but Blues held out with few alarms.

What the managers said...

Bristol City's Dean Holden: "There is so little between the teams in the Championship and winning or losing comes down to fine margins.

"We came out on the right side of a close game at QPR in midweek and this time have lost a tight one. That is going to happen because it is the nature of the division. We couldn't quite get our final pass right and the first goal was always going to be crucial."

Birmingham's Aitor Karanka: "What I stressed most at the team meeting was that the players needed to have the confidence to express themselves on the pitch.

"There wasn't a lot needed to be said. I have a very good group of players if they believe in themselves and show the right character on the pitch. That wasn't the case against Barnsley, but today the performance was so different in every way."