Sheffield United 0-1 Birmingham City: Maxime Colin header gives visitors opening day win

Maxime Colin's previous goal for Birmingham came in a 4-1 home defeat by Middlesbrough

Relegated Sheffield United fell to defeat by Birmingham City on the opening weekend of the Championship season.

Blues opened the scoring in the first half when Maxime Colin headed home from Jeremie Bela's floated cross to the back post.

Oliver Burke smashed a low drive against the near post as the Blades came close to an immediate equaliser

Slavisa Jokanovic threw on strikers Oli McBurnie, Rhian Brewster and Billy Sharp in pursuit of a leveller but they could not break down a resolute and organised Birmingham side.

Indeed it could and perhaps should have been worse for the home side as Blues missed a fine chance to make it 2-0 when Scott Hogan hooked over from six yards out after Lukas Jutkiewicz had headed the ball back from a Gary Gardner cross.

Colin also had a second header disallowed after the break when Jutkiewicz was adjudged to have pushed Ben Osborn in the box.

Lee Bowyer's fine start to life as Birmingham head coach has now seen him win six of his 11 games since taking over in March. On the basis of this showing, fans can look forward to a good campaign after several seasons of only narrowly avoiding relegation to League One.

Debutant Tahith Chong, a summer loan signing from Manchester United, impressed throughout but it was the long-serving Colin who won it for the visitors when the right-back got the better of Osborn to head past Aaron Ramsdale in the Blades goal.

United enjoyed the vast majority of possession, with Norway international Sander Berge a stand-out with his direct running, but failed to create any real clear-cut chances and had just two shots on target.

The Blades, who felt they should have had a penalty when Gardner blocked a John Fleck effort with his arm, scored just 20 goals as they finished bottom of the Premier League last season and new boss Jokanovic will need to rectify their goalscoring issues quickly if they are to challenge at the top end of the Championship.

They host League Two Carlisle in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday, while Blues also have a home tie against fourth tier opposition when they play Colchester on the same evening.

Sheffield United manager Slavisa Jokanovic:

"We didn't perform badly. They scored with their first shot. This is my general feeling about the game.

"I am of course disappointed with the result. We cannot be happy because we didn't make our supporters happy.

"We showed a lot of things we tried working with. The players showed personality and character, looking to score goals.

"Yes, we need time. I am not unhappy with our effort today. We need to improve some parts of the game but what is really important for us is to improve and be more clinical."

Birmingham City head coach Lee Bowyer:

"I'm delighted with the three points. From start to finish, I thought we were very good and looked solid, limiting them to more half-chances and we had the better clear-cut chances.

"We had a goal disallowed - I'm not sure why - and I thought we deserved to win.

"We always knew a top side like Sheffield United would dominate possession, but we had to limit how often they got around our goal, so I'm very pleased."