'Blues are developing more resilience'

After the loss at Norwich, there was more than a bit of tension in the away end at Pride Park on Saturday.

As any Blues fan will know, we have a real knack of not taking advantage of teams on a bad run of form.

Derby haven’t had a great start to the season but they had noticeably pulled their socks up following their lacklustre performance against West Brom and were making themselves much more difficult to break down.

Bobby Clark’s 40th-minute goal was in great danger of taking the joy out of the half-time pies, but Blues showed great resilience by going straight down the other end and equalising, courtesy of a wonderful diving header by Carlos Vicente.

It was good to see Jhon Solis back – we’ve missed his presence in midfield. As expected, he was subbed after an hour, but his replacement Paik Seung-ho was the one who came up with the winner that set the away end bouncing.

It’s never over until it’s over though, and while Blues were pushing for a third, Derby were desperate for an equaliser and the tension was increasing.

When we did get a rare opportunity to break, Luis Vazquez unfortunately produced one of the misses of the season when he put the ball over the bar from just two yards out.

There was a lot of added time because of Henrik Meister’s injury for Derby and, by this time, the Rams had us pinned in our own half.

We eventually had seven defenders on the pitch and they were needed to counter what Derby were throwing at us. We finished the game on top after some epic defending.

What we do seem to be developing is some resilience, which you need in the marathon that is the Championship season. Middlesbrough are up next, and we’re certainly going to need resilience to deal with them.

With thanks to the Derby fans who helped us remember the passing of young Paul Pike earlier this year. May he rest in peace.

Hear and read more from Kym Smith on Birmingham Hospital Radio

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