Sunday 1 March 2015 17:11, UK
Gary Rowett richly praised the performance of Clayton Donaldson in Birmingham's vital 1-0 home win over promotion-chasing Brentford.
Following eight games without a win, Birmingham carved out this victory as a result of an unfortunate 40th-minute own goal from Brentford centre-back James Tarkowski.
But they had to hang onto their slender lead after Stephen Gleeson was sent off in the 87th minute for stamping on Alex Pritchard.
Birmingham manager Rowett said: "Clayton Donaldson was brilliant against his old team. He has been monumental this season and when we play that lone striking role he plays it as well as anyone. He physically imposes himself on the game and is such a great worker for the team.
"That unselfishness gets him into positions as he displayed with the own goal that won the match."
After the winless run, Rowett admitted the importance of the victory over Brentford.
He said: "This is the biggest win of our season. It was an absolute crucial win. To get it against a Brentford side who are going really well under manager Mark Warburton was very important.
"I thought we had to get back to basics after a couple of heavy defeats. Perhaps we have been too open in games and too attacking to please people.
"I thought we defended brilliantly against Brentford and I thought that with a little more composure and a little more quality and a tab more ruthless play we could have added to the single goal."
Birmingham's win - their first since a 3-1 success against Wigan on January 10 - was the result of an own goal by Brentford's central defender Tarkowski when he was challenged at the near post by the industrious Donaldson.
But Birmingham had to hang onto their slender lead after Gleeson was sent off late on.
Rowett said: "I have spoken to Gleeson and that was the only thing which ruined the day for us. He let himself down. What he did was let himself down and put the team under pressure in the last 10 minutes. It was a bit of stupidity."
Stand-in skipper Paul Caddis also earned praise for his performance from Rowett.
He was the driving force behind Birmingham's belated win and carved out the cross from which Tarkowski nudged into his own net before forcing David Button to make the save of the game in the second half.
Brentford had most of the possession but lacked a cutting edge despite putting Birmingham's suspect defence under considerable pressure throughout the game.
Their best chance of getting back on level terms fell to skipper Jonathan Douglas just before half time when he carelessly headed Jon Toral's cross over the bar with only goalkeeper Darren Randolph to beat.
Brentford boss Warburton, who has guided the London club to the verge of the promotion race despite off the field problems, did not criticise Douglas.
He said: "It was a good move and a good ball into the middle. It is testament to Douglas that he gets into that area. He gets forward and has scored some vital goals for us and I have no problem with him as nine times out of 10 he scores from that position.
"We lacked a bit of quality and were not quite at our best. We had a lot of possession but lacked care on the final ball.
"But this is a tough league. There are a lot of points to be played for over the coming weeks.
"Middlesbrough, for instance, have to play six of the top eight and we have to play against two against those teams.
"We have a chance on Tuesday against Huddersfield to deliver a strong performance and remain in the mix."
