Sam Cosgrove makes new beginning as Birmingham City agree deal with Jobe Bellingham

Birmingham City won for the second time in three pre-season games to lift the slightly incongruous Bass Charity Vase at Burton Albion yesterday.

George Hall scored his first senior goal to put Blues one-up at the break before Tom Hamer equalised with a quarter of an hour remaining.

The game seemed destined for a penalty shoot-out until Sam Cosgrove slammed home the winner three minutes from the end.

Scorelines in pre-season mean nothing. Beating Walsall behind closed doors and edging Burton Albion in July count for nought when the cut and thrust of the Championship begins.

But for a side – and a group of players – that hasn’t tasted that winning feeling very often in 2022, there’s no such thing as a bad victory. Even if it’s only one per cent, each little success helps build confidence and belief. Belief in themselves and in what John Eustace is telling them to do.

That could evaporate at Kenilworth Road at the end of the month but for now every little helps, particularly as Eustace focuses on that first priority – defensive shape when the opposition have the ball.

That’s been the main work-on in the head coach’s first week or so, and there seems a genuine effort that if nothing else, Blues at least know what their defensive responsibilities are.

Pre-season has a habit of throwing up incidents with curiosity value. Diego Fabbrini scored his only goal for Birmingham City in a warm-up match at Solihull Moors in the summer of 2016. A couple of years later Cheikh Ndoye converted a late penalty to send more than one thousand Blues fans happily away from Cheltenham Town.

And at the Pirelli Stadium yesterday Sam Cosgrove hit a sweetly-struck drive from outside the area which gave Blues a 2-1 victory over Burton Albion. For