Birmingham City boss Gary Rowett has admitted that he was pleased with his side despite their 1-0 defeat to Watford on Saturday.
The Blues frustrated Slavisa Jokanovic's men for 56 minutes until Craig Cathcart found the net with a volley which was enough to hand the Hornets all three points at Vicarage Road.
However, Rowett has revealed that he was happy with the way that his team performed on the road against a side chasing promotion to the Premier League.
He told Sky Sports News: "We made it difficult for Watford. They're a very good side and they try to play through you and they've got lots of great movement around the edge of the box which means you end up dropping deep and means you can't give space.
"But we hung on in. We were resilient, we kept going, we showed excellent character and just as we looked as we making the crowd get a little bit nervous we conceded a very poor goal from a corner. Secondary phase, we don't react to it, they put the ball in the box and it's a good finish, but we shouldn't do that.
"That's just the small margins at the moment we can't make go our way. But I'm not too disappointed. Again we've taken a very good side very close and made them a little bit nervous for parts of the afternoon."
Birmingham are 14th in the Championship table with 53 points from their 43 matches this season.
Simon Sinclair
