of encouragement. In the first match, at home to Reading, Bowyer recalled Jutkiewicz, played him alongside Hogan and with wingers to supply the crossesa system preferred by both forwardsand four minutes into the match, he headed home from Bela's cross to score his 50th goal for Birmingham and first in 24 games. Reading equalised before Dean's header from a corner won the match; his goal celebration, a shrug of the shoulders, seemed to mock Karanka's mannerism. Although Birmingham lost 3–0 away to second-placed Watford, the manager's appreciation of the need for formation changes and the team's ability to implement them illustrated the increased focus on shape work under Bowyer. The same applied to the next match, at home to Swansea City, in which the half-time replacement of the enthusiastic but yellow-carded Steve Seddon by Friend strengthened the defence and Hogan's last-minute penalty, after Jutkiewicz had missed an earlier one, won the game. They followed up with a goalless draw away to Brentford, in which the highlights were Etheridge's goalkeeping and the performance of McGree out of position at wing-back. With Stoke City's defence expecting yet another long throw, Roberts threw short, Colin passed it back to him, and his "first-time curling cross was headed home powerfully by Jutkiewicz" for his 50th league goal for Birmingham. His 51st completed a 2–0 win. Six points behind Birmingham but still with two games in hand, Rotherham United held out until Dean's 88th-minute header went in off a defender. Away to another relegation candidate, Nottingham Forest, Birmingham led through Roberts' fourth goal of the season until six minutes into stoppage time, when the referee awarded a penalty for what he saw as a foul by Jutkiewicz. After the match, Bowyer was critical of the quality of officiating at Championship level, and correctly predicted he would receive an apology for the mistake from the head of refereeing. Another two Jutkiewic goals helped Birmingham come from behind to beat Derby County 2–1 and secure their Championship status with two matches of the season remaining. Bowyer used the last two fixtures to look at fringe players, in appreciation of their contribution as part of the squad and to see how the younger players coped with starting a competitive fixture. Both were heavy defeats. The matches saw first-team debuts for Ryan Stirk and Keke Simmonds, first starts for Sam Cosgrove and Amari Miller, first appearances of the season