Chris Davies blamed Birmingham City’s defeat to Stoke City on their sluggish start.

Blues have suffered back-to-back league defeats for the first time under Davies and have lost their last three games without scoring including the Carabao Cup exit to Port Vale.

Stoke capitalised on some early lapses to score through Bosun Lawal and Blues couldn’t hit back.

“It was a tough match,” said Davies. “I knew it would be a tough match coming to Stoke, everyone knows that.

“I think we started the game too slowly, that was the reason for the defeat because we were too slow to win duels, second balls, really impose ourselves in what was clearly going to be a challenging start and that culminated in them scoring a goal from a set piece which was very disappointing.

“A little bit like our last

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