Murray salutes crucial three points at Blues

Glenn Murray struck his 14th goal of the season at Birmingham City on Saturday. Picture: Phil Westlake (PW Sporting Photography)

In Gianfranco Zola’s first game as Birmingham manager, the Seagulls were below their best for long periods and trailed to Lukas Jutkiewicz’s goal until they scored twice in the final eight minutes – including Murray’s winner deep in injury-time – to snatch all three points.

The victory kept Albion eight points ahead of third-placed Reading and just a point behind leaders Newcastle, approaching the halfway stage of the Championship season.

Solly March starred for Brighton after coming on just past the hour and set up Anthony Knockaert for the equaliser, before Murray headed home Knockaert’s corner for the winner.

It was the striker’s 14th goal of the season and speaking to www.seagulls.co.uk, he said: “It was a good finish to a bad afternoon. I think we’ll look back in a few months time and realise it was a crucial win.

“It was a difficult afternoon, we found it difficult away at Cardiff as well, when teams sit in at this level, they’re hard to break down.

“We have to give a lot of credit to Birmingham, they’ve had a lot of upheaval this week, but still came out and showed what a good side they are.”

Murray also praised the squad’s character and said: “Once you stop believing in yourself there’s no point in being out there, so you have to keep believing, and fighting to the end and getting wins like that will only help the spirit within the group.

“Even when we were losing 1-0, we sensed they were getting tired in the last 20 minutes. The crowd sensed it, they started dropping a little bit deeper and all of a sudden, our tails were up.

“Anthony got a great goal and then it was just about nicking a winner before the full-time whistle, and fortunately we did.”

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