Birmingham City manager Garry Monk has dubbed Wednesday's victory against Millwall as the perfect response to last weekend's derby defeat, report the club's official Twitter account. 

The Blues saw off Neil Harris's side 2-0 in a comfortable victory at the Den, a result that came just three days after the 4-2 defeat to Aston Villa in the Second City derby.

"Wednesday was the perfect response," Monk told his pre-match press conference.

"The clean sheet was huge, we’ve talked about the belief and attitude and I think we managed those situations well on Wednesday,

"We are the only team to have gone there and kept a clean sheet and that is credit to the players."

The win was the club's first in three matches and reignited hopes of a playoff push, lifting them up into 10th place on 27 points, just four outside the top-six.

Monk's side have been in impressive form this season, losing just four times all season and going on a 10 game unbeaten run that previously saw them break into the playoffs before the recent run of poor form.

Alex Neil's Preston North End side are the visitors to St. Andrew's on Saturday as the Blues look to secure back-to-back wins against the division's strugglers.

The verdict 

Monk is absolutely right here.

There would have been a real fear amongst the fans that the derby day defeat could derail the club's immediate form and see them slip down the table.

But they seem to have galvanised themselves impressively quickly and now look set to return to their surprise playoff charge.