Birmingham City 1-2 Preston North End: Lilywhites score twice to pile misery on Blues

Preston North End had lost three in a row at the end of 2022 but have now won three in four games in all competitions since the turn of the year

Preston North End struck twice in six minutes in the first half to pile the misery on Birmingham City, who lost their fifth Championship game in a row.

The visitors led early on through Ryan Ledson's strike from the edge of the box and they doubled their lead through Alan Browne's header soon after.

Birmingham offered little in the way of response for much of the game, with fans going on to protest against the club's ownership as they headed for another defeat.

Lukas Jutkiewicz got them off the mark with seven minutes remaining as he headed home from Maxime Colin's cross but they could not find an equaliser.

The match was the first to see a woman referee a men's Championship game, after Rebecca Welch took charge at St Andrew's.

It was not long before she officiated her first Championship goal, with Ledson doing well to score his first league goal since April 2021 after Blues failed to clear away a North End cross.

The Lilywhites took just six more minutes to head into a 2-0 lead, with an unmarked Browne heading home at the near post from a Robbie Brady delivery.

Blues came into the game with a woeful losing run, with Tuesday's FA Cup win over Forest Green a rare exception amid four straight defeats.

The hosts have now not won any of their past 35 games when they have conceded first - losing on 30 of those occasions - following Saturday's defeat.

As the game went on, Birmingham fans protested in front of the directors' box against the club's ownership, with a small number of fans also running on to the pitch and causing a brief stoppage late in the second half before they were removed.

Rebecca Welch previously refereed a League Two match and an FA Cup third-round tie before stepping up to referee Saturday's Championship fixture at St Andrew's

Birmingham City head coach John Eustace told BBC WM 95.6:

"The manner in which we conceded the goals was disappointing. It was too soft. It's something that we've been doing a lot of of late and we need to get back to basics.

"We've had four or five defeats in a row and I tried to freshen things up. I tried to play the players who were in a bit of form.

"The most important thing is that I need these fans to stay connected with the team. Whatever goes on off the field, I need them behind the boys at the moment. Yes, we need to perform better to do that but we showed in the first half of the season that we are together.

"Whatever's going on off the field, that's got nothing to do with myself or the players, we stick together. The fans were good and got us through the second half and we had a good few opportunities to equalise.

"Please stick with the team, the only way we'll get through this period is if we stick together."

Preston North End boss Ryan Lowe told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"We had two lads up front who are runners and caused them havoc. They changed shape and went to a 4-4-2 which we were aware of because they did that at Forest Green and won.

"We went back to basics, defended and attacked well and we needed to score goals, which we did.

"They're well coached and going through a tough time at the moment. You can see that with the protests at the end.

"It's a tough division and a tough job but they've got some good players. We felt they were a wounded animal and they could have hurt us."