Birmingham City favourite 'embarrassed' by criticism of Blues man

Birmingham City favourite Paul Devlin has leapt to the defence of Lukas Jutkiewicz following social media criticism of the veteran.

Jutkiewicz has been left out of the side in recent weeks, with Lyle Taylor coming on loan from Nottingham Forest and scoring three times in four games.

The target man has found game time harder to come by this season, with Lee Bowyer having the likes of Taylor, Scott Hogan and Troy Deeney at his disposal.

Indeed the 32-year-old has made only four Championship starts since the end of October and has scored just twice.

But Devlin, who had two spells at Blues and scored 37 goals for the club he supports, hailed Jutkiewicz for the 56 he has struck in his six seasons at St Andrew’s.

Speaking to BirminghamLive, Devlin added: “If there’s a bloke out of the squad in the last few years who you can’t say anything bad about it’s probably Juke. He’s been a tremendous servant to the club.”

Jutkiewicz is currently level on league goals with the legendary Bob Hatton, although all of his have come in the second tier.

He has twice broken his best ever tally for a season during his time at Blues, with 14 alongside Che Adams in 2018/2019 and then 15 the following season when he largely carried the goal burden himself.

He was given fewer opportunities by Aitor Karanka last term but when he came in last March Bowyer made him the focal point of the team which yet again fought off relegation.

Hogan leads the way this season, with ten, while Gary Gardner and Deeney have four apiece, Taylor and Onel Hernandez three each.