Birmingham City 1-3 Preston North End
- Published
Birmingham's only league win this season under Harry Redknapp came at home to Bristol City last month
Birmingham City slumped to a fifth successive Championship loss to Preston in what proved to be Harry Redknapp's last game in charge.
Full-back Maxime Colin fired in from a narrow angle to give Birmingham the lead on his home debut.
But Preston scored three times in 11 second-half minutes through Daniel Johnson, Jordan Hugill and Tom Barkhuizen to condemn Blues to defeat.
Birmingham confirmed Redknapp's departure after the game.
Redknapp took over at St Andrew's in April and steered Blues to survival on the final day of last season before signing a one-year deal in May.
His departure comes following a disappointing start to the season which has seen Redknapp's side take just four points from their opening eight games to sit 23rd in the table.
Preston had not won away from home in 15 league fixtures, but turned the game on its head in a fraught spell in the second half to move up to fourth place.
Former Aston Villa midfielder Johnson provided the impetus with his second goal of the season, fired in from outside the box, before Birmingham imploded to hand Alex Neil's side the points.
Colin gave the ball away, with Hugill's shot taking a deflection off Michael Morrison to make it 2-1 and Barkhuizen made the points safe seven minutes later from Josh Harrop's cross.
Preston, who brought in former Premier League goalkeeper Dean Kiely as goalkeeping coach earlier on Saturday, were not troubled at the other end with Blues managing just two shots on target.
Preston manager Alex Neil:
"I made the players aware at half-time that I expected more from them in the second half.
"I got the response I wanted and I could not have asked any more. We had bits of quality to finish off moves we had at the time.
"I gave them a hard time at half-time and they responded well to come back after trailing by a single goal."
- Published12 September 2017
- Published12 September 2017
