Birmingham boss Chris Hughton breathed a sigh of relief after his side managed to beat Burnley 2-1 courtesy of a late Chris Burke winner.
Frustration for Howe as Clarets are beaten by Birmingham
Birmingham boss Chris Hughton breathed a sigh of relief after his side managed to beat Burnley 2-1 courtesy of a late Chris Burke winner.
The Blues took an early through Jean Beausejour and should have extended it but Marlon King contrived to miss an easy chance.
Marvin Bartley earned the Clarets parity after the interval but it was Burke who ensured that Hughton's men gained ground on their promotion rivals with his injury-time winner.
"We left it very late but the plus to take from it is the fact there is a lot of spirit in the camp and they are a determined group of players," said Hughton.
"We certainly didn't make life as easy for ourselves as we should have done but I was very happy with some of our offensive play.
"We just need to make sure we start working the opposition goalkeeper more than we are doing at the moment."
Hughton played down King's poor first-half miss, adding: "With Marlon's chance you thought it was 2-0 but it wasn't to be.
"If he had the same opportunity five minutes later he would have put himself in the same position.
"The biggest disappointment for him will be that strikers like to score goals and he'll just be looking at it as one less goal than he should have."
Feels worse
Burnley boss Eddie Howe was left frustrated for the second game in succession as his side ended up empty-handed.
Howe, who saw his side suffer a late collapse to lose to Leeds on Saturday, said: "It's the second time in a row and it's really frustrating to be beaten by a late goal again.
"This one feels worse than Saturday because I thought we had done enough to get a point which would have been a great point here.
"We played well, defended very well but conceded right at the end and it is a really tough one to take.
"We never got going in the first half and the early goal we conceded knocked us.
"But we started the second half brightly, got the equaliser and were comfortable for long spells. I was really pleased with how we defended for long periods once again we've conceded two goals and lost the game."
