Sloppy defending led to Brum goals - Burnley FC boss Howe

After the defeat at Turf Moor he said: "The scoreline doesn't look good but it was a very good second half performance. I thought when we equalised we were going to go on to win the game. But we've said that a few times this season when the momentum has been with us.

"We conceded a really poor second goal then. It's really tough when you've worked so hard to get your way back in to a game and then you concede straight away. I thought there was a lot of positives in the second half. First half we tried a different system and it didn't really work. We didn't really have any width and it was difficult for us. I thought Birmingham were the better team but in the second half we turned it right around and bombarded them really. That's never been a 3-1 game.

"The first goal was poor defending from our point of view, in fact the first two goals was really sloppy from us. It was too easy. It's something we have to eradicate going forward. I'm not sure why that is (conceding so quickly) and it's something we'll have to look at. We've come through so much this season, the lads have learnt and developed but the same frailties have come back to haunt us."