Etheridge saved a penalty, awarded for Clarke-Salter's hand-ball, but Cardiff scored twice late on. Colin gave Birmingham an early lead at home to Middlesbrough before the mistakes set in: two half-time substitutions and three more after an hour made little impact and the match ended as a 4–1 loss. A goalless draw at Nottingham Forest was followed by a 4–0 loss at home to Derby County summed up by Karanka as "like going to the cinema and watching the same film. One mistake, one goal. Two mistakes, two goals. Three mistakes, three goals. ... I expected ups and downs this season, but not these same individual mistakes every single game." January–March Birmingham went into 2021 18th in the table, seven points above the relegation places. A 2–0 loss to Blackburn Roverstheir eighth home defeat of the season, the most in the top four divisionswas followed by George Friend's man-of-the-match performance on his return to Middlesbrough, where a well-worked goal by Hogan gave Birmingham their first win in seven. Two more winless home games, a loss to Preston North End and a draw with Coventry City, left Birmingham 20th in the table, four points above Rotherham United who had two games in hand, and Karanka still talking about mistakes, goals and Groundhog Day. Goalless at rock-bottom Wycombe Wanderers, with Hogan, new signing Sam Cosgrove, and three other attacking players on the bench, Karanka made no changes until Roberts was sent off in the 88th minute. He claimed that "even one second lack of concentration can be dangerous. We were going to be fighting to the last second and one mistake of concentration could have been difficult for us." Birmingham had the better of the first half away to AFC Bournemouth: Hogan opened the scoring with the aid of a goalkeeping error, and after Sánchez had a shot cleared off the line, Pedersen's angled volley was disallowed for offside. In a game of two poor defences, the hosts regained the lead, Hogan equalised, but his side could not hold on. The defeat placed them in the relegation zone, and earned the head coach the 100% confidence of his superiors. After his team lost 1–0 at home to Luton Town and dropped to 23rd, he said if they kept playing like that they would not stay up. The positive intent shown by selecting two strikers at Millwall was blunted two minutes into the