Birmingham City

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Birmingham City boss Chris Davies has been fined £2,000 by the Football Association following his sending off in the latter stages of his side's controversial 1-1 draw with Southampton at St Andrew's eight days ago.

Davies was booked for protesting at the manner of Cameron Archer's 71st-minute equaliser for Saints, when referee Matt Donohue did not stop play after he had inadvertently got in the way of Blues skipper Tomoki Iwata during the build-up to the goal.

The Blues boss was then showed a second yellow card - and a subsequent red - for delaying the restart when the Southampton were awarded a free-kick five minutes later.

After the game, with Davies unable to carry out his post-match media duties, Blues assistant boss Ben Petty said the club were "all very, very upset" by the incident.

"It's a very contentious issue. I'm not quite sure why the referee didn't stop the game. He's human and everyone makes mistakes. Ultimately it has cost us two points."

In a statement, the FA said Davies was charged with misconduct after alleging he acted "in an improper manner in or around the 76th minute of the game" adding Davies had admitted the charge and accepted the standard financial penalty.

Birmingham City midfielder Marc Leonard has been given the green light to depart, with a loan deal the preferred option, but boss Chris Davies is hesitant to allow the 24-year-old Scotsman to go unless the midfield is bolstered by new arrivals. (Birmingham Live), external

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Tuesday's gossip column here.

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Birmingham City full-back Bright Osayi-Samuel played the full 90 minutes as Nigeria qualified for the quarter-finals of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

The 28-year-old featured in his third game of the tournament as the Super Eagles beat Mozambique 4-0 in their last 16 tie in Fes.

Osayi-Samuel was left out of the opening group game against Uganda, with Nigeria now having won all four of their matches at the competition in Morocco.

They will now face either Algeria or DR Congo in Saturday's quarter-final tie in Marrakech (16:00 GMT).

German defender Kai Wagner believes his dedicated fitness regime allowed him to step straight into the Birmingham City starting line-up just two days after signing for the Championship club.

The 28-year-old played 71 minutes of the 3-2 win over leaders Coventry on Sunday following his arrival from MLS side Philadelphia Union.

"I felt good. Six weeks, no games, one training session, a lot of hard work in the off season, but I'm really happy," he told BBC Radio WM.

"I always try to keep my body as good as possible. I'm a big believer if you maintain your body you will get the best out of yourself.

"This off season was probably a little bit more because the (transfer) talk started early …. so I did everything possible to be as ready as I can and did all the hard work at home."

He added: "To get the trust from the coach and to get the trust from the players felt big."

Earning the trust paid instant rewards, with Wagner providing an assist for Marvin Ducksch's opener after just six minutes.

"That's how you always think about your debut when you come in," he said.

"I was joking with Marvin before the game, 'if you're in the right position, I'll give you the ball'.

"He was in the right position, I gave him a bad ball in my eyes, but he had a great finish so I'm really happy for him and for myself, too."

Sunderland are prepared to let Luke O'Nien, 31, depart this month with Birmingham, Coventry and West Bromwich Albion interested in the English defender. (Chronicle), external

Blackburn Rovers are interested in a loan deal for Brighton's former Republic of Ireland Under-21 defender Eiran Cashin, with the 24-year-old only making 11 Championship appearances during his current loan spell with Birmingham City this season. (Alan Nixon - subscription required), external

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Monday's gossip column here.

Birmingham boss Chris Davies was delighted with his side's reaction after they recovered from their New Year's Day mauling by Watford to beat Championship leaders Coventry 3-2.

Marvin Ducksch scored twice in between on-loan Liverpool forward Lewis Koumas' first effort for Birmingham to settle a Midlands thriller.

Davies told BBC Radio WM: "I thought we were really strong today against the league leaders. Nobody gave us a chance today and I thought the boys were fantastic.

"I think they had to show all sorts of sides to themselves. Moments of quality, good goals, run hard, battle, tackle, head, everything."

On two-goal hero Ducksch he said: "We know Marvin's got the quality and I think he was really good. He enjoyed it today, he enjoyed his football today. He moved well and tried to combine and then a fantastic finish for his first goal. When they come over like that, you can easily go safe on those, but he went hard and it went in."

Birmingham City boss Chris Davies spoke to BBC Radio WM after Thursday's 3-0 defeat at Watford.

"It was a performance that was nowhere near the level required to win a football match. In the first half it didn't seem there was a lot in the match at all, but the two times they got into our box they scored such easy goals," he said.

"It seemed strange to be 2-0 down at half time considering, but we certainly didn't do enough defensively in those key moments.

"In the second half it was a case of trying to bring a bit of energy and trying to add something to change the dynamics slightly, but it was to no avail.

"We didn't improve our energy, we didn't improve our fluidity, we didn't improve out threat and we obviously still looked susceptible to the counter attack, which is how they ended up scoring their third goal.

"I can only apologise to the fans for that performance, it was nowhere near the level required form a Birmingham City team and team I'm trying to lead here. It was a really disappointing day."

Watford will look to extend their good run of form as visitors Birmingham City hope to end their winless spell as the two sides meet at Vicarage Road on New Year's Day (15:00 GMT).

The Hornets have won their past three successive games to put themselves into the play-off places and are undefeated across their last six, though the last team to beat them were Blues.

However, the West Midlands side haven't been able to find another win since that victory at St Andrew's in December.

Can they end a six match winless streak to deliver a league double against their hosts?

• Watford have won each of their last six home league games against Birmingham City without conceding; only against Portsmouth between 1962 and 1989 have they kept seven clean sheets in a row on home turf.

• Birmingham City had won just one of their last 12 league meetings with Watford prior to this season (D1 L10) but won the reverse fixture 2-1 last month; the Blues last completed a league double over the Hornets in 2008-09.

• Watford have only won their opening fixture in two of the last 14 calendar years (D2 L10), beating Wolves 2-1 in the Premier League in 2020 and Norwich in the Championship in 2023.

• Birmingham City haven't won a league game on New Year's Day since 1991 away at Mansfield Town (2-1), going winless in 15 such matches since then (D5 L10), which is the longest ongoing winless streak on January 1st of any team in England's top four tiers.

• Watford have only lost one of their last nine home league games against newly promoted opposition (W4 D4), winning all three such games last season.

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Birmingham City assistant manager Ben Petty spoke to BBC Radio WM after their 1-1 draw with Southampton.

Blues boss Chris Davies was sent off in the game wand was therefore unable to speak to the media.

"I thought the team were outstanding tonight. We had make a few changes because of suspensions and injury, I thought the players that came in gave everything," he said.

"We've been good with our set plays and I think we deserved the goal and could have had a couple more before that went in.

"I think tonight you saw the best of Jay Stansfield, pressing superbly well from the front and coming in from the left. He had the bit between his teeth and was very unlucky not to score.

(On Southampton goal) "We're all very, very upset by it, it's a very contentious issue. I'm not quite sure why the referee didn't stop the game. He's human and everyone makes mistakes. Ultimately it has cost us two points."

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Birmingham boss Chris Davies was frustrated that his side failed to claim victory against Derby despite playing against 10 men for more than half of the game.

"From our point of view, there is underlying frustration there," he told BBC Radio WM.

"They have a man sent off just before half-time and there is a big chunk of that second half before Chris Klarer gets sent off where we had a man advantage.

"But I thought we played a good game. One long clearance up the pitch has resulted in a goal, which is frustrating and sloppy from our point of view, but I liked a lot about how we played that first half.

"Patrick [Roberts] was looking really dangerous, Demarai [Gray] has hit the post and some of our football was excellent against a team who pride themselves on defensive solidity."