Birmingham City boss Chris Davies had an unhappy return to his Welsh roots as Cardiff City dished out Blues' first defeat in six games.

A weekend that began with a chance to see his side go top of the Championship after a run of 13 points out of a possible 15 and three straight wins, ended with Davies's side slipping three places to seventh.

Middlesbrough's 5-1 Friday night win at Bolton meant that leading the division was off the agenda when they kicked off in South Wales.

But, with Swansea City and West Ham United both losing, a win at the Cardiff City Stadium would have lifted Blues to second.

As it was, Yousef Salech's 31st-minute winner in the pouring rain proved the game's key moment. And Blues, without injured top scorer August Priske, looked second best.

"It's a game I knew would be tough," Davies told BBC Radio WM after his side's first defeat since 9 September. "They play with a press and real energy.

"We expected more from ourselves. But the best team won. They deserved it.

"In any game, if you're second to the ball that much it's always going to be hard.

"Defensively we were very disorganised for the goal which is unlike us. We gave ourselves a big job to recover from that.

"We couldn't quite get going until the end. We couldn't get on top of them until the last 15 minutes or so when we might have nicked something.

"Every time we had possession of the ball there was a blue shirt on us. Too much of the play was around our half-way line. We couldn't get close to their box."