Birmingham City 1-0 Burton Albion

Birmingham City edged a scrappy FA Cup third-round tie against fellow Championship strugglers Burton thanks to Sam Gallagher's second-half strike.

Burton seized control after a cagey opening 30 minutes with Lloyd Dyer the most likely source of a goal.

The winger had a goal-bound shot blocked after a surging run, while John Brayford, Will Miller and Ben Turner all went close.

But Gallagher's fourth goal in his past five games took Blues through.

Steve Cotterill's side, who are one place and one point behind Burton in the Championship relegation zone, have now won their past three games.

Nigel Clough's Brewers had also been finding some form, winning three and drawing one of their past five Championship fixtures.

It was the visitors who looked the most likely to go ahead, with Turner going closest when his header was cleared off the line by Craig Gardner after the interval.

But Blues stood firm and Gallagher's cool finish, after a great run and pull-back by former Brewers winger Jacques Maghoma, was enough to send the hosts in to round four.

Birmingham boss Steve Cotterill:

"I had a long chat with Nigel Clough before the game. We both put out unchanged teams as we wanted to maintain our recent momentum and fortunately for us we were able to win.

"What pleased me with our third successive win is that it was also our third successive clean sheet. If you have a clean sheet it means you don't lose and this is something we've been working on as it is a big confidence boost for the team."

Burton manager Nigel Clough:

"We created more chances against Birmingham than we did in our three victories on the spin.

"I thought we were very wasteful in the final third and as a result we were not quite good enough to get a goal. But there were enough chances to have won three games."