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Sky Bet Championship: Lee Clark full of praise for Birmingham after win at Millwall

Birmingham City's manager Lee Clark during the Sky Bet Championship match at St Andrews, Birmingham.
Image: Lee Clark: Delighted with his Birmingham side

Lee Clark saluted his "resolute" Birmingham side after they finally kicked their habit of throwing away the lead in Sky Bet Championship encounters.

Blues were 2-0 up at half-time at Millwall through goals from Clayton Donaldson and David Cotterill, but boss Clark feared the worst when Lee Gregory pulled one back for the Lions after the break.

However, for a change this season, Birmingham survived the inevitable onslaught and even broke away at the end to seal a 3-1 win when Wes Thomas tapped in Cotterill's cross.

"Our issue this season has been, from the last 30 minutes, we have dropped 11 points from winning positions," said Clark.

"We have spoken about it, when teams go behind they will come at you and you have to be resolute - and we were.

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Birmingham finally shook off their travel sickness with a 3-1 win at Millwall which deepened the gloom at The Den.

"If we had taken even half of those points dropped from winning positions we'd be in the top 10 and everyone would be talking positively about us.

"Previously when we've had a setback we haven't responded, but this time we did. I said at half-time they would throw the kitchen sink at us and fortunately the players responded. We can take confidence from that."

Donaldson tucked away Cotterill's cross to open the scoring after 32 minutes, and Cotterill got in on the act himself eight minutes later when his free-kick deceived Lions keeper David Forde.

But Gregory's neat finish after 54 minutes, his first for the Lions, sparked hope of a Millwall comeback.

However Blues keeper Darren Randolph denied Mark Beevers and Shaun Williams with fine saves, Mathais Ranegie headed over and Ricardo Fuller blazed too high.

And Thomas' strike six minutes from time secured Birmingham's first away victory of the season and ended a seven-match winless streck.

Millwall's bright start to the season has evaporated, however, and another defeat leaves them with just one point from a possible 15.

"That's the Championship," shrugged manager Ian Holloway.

"We have to stop defending like that, they've had four shots and scored three. It's deja vu, and we have a lot of work to do.

"I've reminded the lads that If we'd had some of these results in our last eight games last season we wouldn't still be in this division.

"But no-one folded, we managed to get ourselves back in it and to all intents and purposes I thought we were going to get something. But we don't seem to be scoring easy goals like other teams are."

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