Hughton: It's been a gruelling season

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Hughton hails Blues spirit

Birmingham boss Chris Hughton paid tribute to his players for their handling of a taxing fixture schedule this season.

Because of their Europa League campaign, the Blues have played 36 matches so far this season, significantly more than their Championship rivals.

The FA Cup victory over Wolves in Wednesday night’s replay adds at least one more fixture to the workload.

However, Hughton has been impressed with his players’ attitude and response to the challenge.

He said: “We have played on average eight more games than most teams in our division.

“But at this moment there is a real good spirit in the team. All we are trying to do on our side is to be positive about everything.

“There is a group of players here who want to play. No-one has come in and told me they are tired.

“It is one game after another but I’ve got a group of lads who enjoy playing football.”

Wade Elliot scored the only goal of the match to send Brum to the fourth round of the FA Cup against Sheffield United.

Goalkeeper Colin Doyle pulled off a fantastic double save at the death to preserve his side’s slender advantage and avert the prospect of a physically gruelling extra-time.

Hughton added: “It was a satisfying result. We had to defend very well at times and our two centre-halfs (Curtis Davies and Steven Caldwell) were excellent and we needed them.

“But I thought we showed enough on the ball to be a real threat at times and in the end we just deserved it.

“It was an important double save at the end from Colin because we didn’t want to be going into extra-time.”