Garry Monk guided Birmingham City to a fine 3-0 victory at Wigan Athletic yesterday, leaving them on the cusp of an unlikely play-off assault in the New Year.

The Blues were rampant against a below-par Latics, with Che Adams opening the scoring in the first half. Defender Mark Morrison added a second before winger Jacques Maghoma finished off the rout just after the hour mark.

They're up to eighth in the table, just four points outside the top six. They did all of this without their big summer signing Kristian Pederson.

He picked up an injury last week and as Monk explained to Birmingham Live, he's hopeful of having the key player back for the upcoming run of matches.

“We had a slight problem with Kristian during the week, but we’re hopeful he’ll be ready for the next game,” Monk said. “He kicked the bottom of the studs, and there was a bit of a twist with it, at the top of his ankle."

“There was a bit of irritation on his ligament and it was late in the week in terms of recovery."

The Blues have two home matches coming up before the end of 2018, with Stoke City and Brentford the visitors before a New Year's Day trip to Sheffield Wednesday.

The Verdict

This was a standard move by the manager to protect a key player over the festive period. Sometimes, managers are a little cagey in the run up to games about their injury situations, and this is no different.

What a great win for the Blues though, even without the Dane. Could they make the top six by May? It'll be a huge ask but with their togetherness and resilience anything is possible.

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