Despite a poor run of form over the last few games, Birmingham City have made an encouraging start to their Sky Bet Championship campaign under Pep Clotet.

The Blues are currently 15th in the Championship table, although a run of three straight defeats has seen them fall to nine points outside the play-offs.

There's still plenty of room for improvement and Clotet may look to strengthen his squad in the January transfer window, but the Blues' start to the campaign has given fans at St Andrew's plenty of reasons to feel optimistic about the campaign ahead.

However, as 2019 comes to a close, it's fair to say that Birmingham have been through their fair share of ups and downs over the past twelve months, as many teams have.

With this in mind, here are TWO moments that Birmingham fans will want to forget from 2019...

1-0 defeat to Aston Villa

Birmingham suffered a 1-0 defeat to their arch-rivals Aston Villa at St Andrew's back in March, in a game which was overshadowed by an attack on Jack Grealish.

After ten minutes of the derby a spectator from the Tilton End somehow made his way onto the pitch and Grealish from behind, but in the end it was the Villa captain who had the last laugh.

Grealish scored the winner in the 67th minute, weaving his way into the box and shooting low past Lee Camp to give Villa their second win over Birmingham that season and spark passionate celebrations in the away end.

The nine-point deduction

In March 2019, Birmingham were handed a nine-point deduction by EFL for breaching profitability and sustainability rules.

The Blues became the first team to be deducted points since the new rules were introduced at the start of the 2016/17 season.

Can you get 18 out of 18 on this Birmingham City quiz? Have a go now!

The points deduction saw the Blues fall from play-off hopefuls into a relegation battle, but Garry Monk's side were able to put together a strong run of results towards the end of the campaign and were able to avoid the drop.