Chris Davies praises Birmingham for a complete display in win at Norwich

Birmingham manager Chris Davies felt his side had produced a complete performance after watching them come away with a hard-fought 2-1 win against in-form Norwich.

Birmingham swiftly moved into a 2-0 lead at Carrow Road before withstanding a second-half fightback to move up to seventh in the Championship, just two points off the play-off zone.

Carlos Vincente got the ball rolling after five minutes when he latched onto Bright Osayi-Samuel’s pass down the right flank and cut inside before slipping the ball past Vladan Kovacevic.

The Blues doubled their advantage nine minutes later as August Priske squared for Marvin Ducksch to slide the ball home but from then on Norwich were largely in control.

They finally got themselves a lifeline on 67 minutes when skipper Kenny McLean blasted a loose ball into the roof of the net – but the visitors held out for a hard earned win.

“I thought that was one of our best away performances of the season,” said Davies. “We have shown a bit of everything and the boys were very happy in the dressing room afterwards because they knew they had to fight all the way to get a win I thought we deserved.

“In the early stages I thought we were brave and aggressive on the ball, didn’t let Norwich settle and were clinical in front of goal.

“In the second half we had to show the other side of the game – grit and determination – to come away with the three points.

“We were up against a Norwich side who have been flying recently and it’s a really big win for us.

“What happens between now and the end of season I don’t know but I am sure we will finish strongly and we’ll just have to see where it takes us.

“I don’t spend too much time looking at the table but I do know you could throw a blanket over a lot of teams and all we can do, and I know it’s a cliche, is to take one game at a time.”

Norwich head coach Philippe Clement was left to rue a slow start as his side lost for only the second time in nine games.

“We had 62 per cent possession overall and more than double their attempts on goal and with those statistics you should be winning games,” he said.

“But early in the game we got caught by balls behind us too often. I thought the first 20 minutes was probably the worst we have been since I have been here and in the second half it was probably the best. All we were missing were the goals.”

Norwich were denied a penalty in the second half when Mo Toure went down, while both Birmingham goals were close offside calls – but Clement refused to directly criticise referee Farai Hallam.

“Referees are human. They can’t see everything and it’s a shame they don’t get the help this league deserves from VAR,” he said.

“I think the Championship is one of the top eight leagues in Europe but it doesn’t have VAR so sometimes you have conclusions like this. It would also help young referees prepare for officiating in the Premier League if we had VAR.”