Chris Davies praises great Dane as August Priske fires Birmingham to win at Imps
He scored either side of the break in Lincoln to take his season tally to seven.
Two-goal August Priske was saluted by Birmingham boss Chris Davies after the recalled Danish striker helped Blues sink Lincoln 3-1 in the Sky Bet Championship at the ProAmpac Stadium.
He scored either side of the break to take his season tally to seven, with Alex Cochrane securing the win after Imps substitute Tom Bayliss had reduced the deficit.
And while Davies was delighted with the three points, he did point to Priske’s contribution as a vital factor, saying: “He not only scored the goals, but gave us a real focal point, with his size and his strength. It was a very good day for him.
“He’s very mature for his age and he has all the tools, the temperament, the technical skills, the physicality and again he just needs to keep hungry, keep pushing as there’s plenty more goals out there for him.”
On the victory itself, Davies went on: “I’m really pleased, it’s a tough place to come. We were wary of the threats Lincoln had especially on the back of beating Burnley 4-1 here last week.
“I thought we were worthy of the three points this week, we were the better team. It was important to bounce back from defeat and it was a very good win. It shows real growth from us.
“It was competitive, a lot of bouncing balls, second balls, set-pieces, direct play… you’re going to get that and the players came out of it well.”
Birmingham were ahead after 16 minutes after a Blues pass was inadvertently directed towards his own goal by Yunus Konak straight to Priske on the edge of the box and he fired a low shot into the bottom corner.
On the hour mark, Blues doubled their lead. A long throw into the box was flicked on and there was Priske to slide in and poke the ball past George Wickens.
Lincoln reduced the deficit through Bayliss, who arrowed a ball into the corner of the net. But Cochrane secured the win when he was given too much time and space to drive in a left-footed shot after 73 minutes.
Imps head coach Chris Cohen, who got booked along with his fellow head coach Tom Shaw, lamented defensive lapses as they failed to build on their win over Burnley.
“If you give away the goals we gave away, then the good bits don’t really matter that much,” admitted Cohen. “We’ve got to get back to not giving up big chances, back to being hard to beat and we need to double down on that stuff.
“I thought we were a big threat in the first half, but if you give up big chances to good teams then you’re going to get punished.
“If we’d have played exactly the same in the second half as we did the first half then we’d have got something out of the game. Ultimately we weren’t able to do that.”