What Darren Carter thinks keeps costing Birmingham City

Birmingham City interim manager Darren Carter pinpointed just where his side went wrong after they suffered a 1-0 loss to West Ham.

Irons winger Adriana Leon fired in from a corner to condemn the Blues to a 15th defeat of the season and rooted the to the foot of the Barclays FA WSL table.

City fought closely against a Hammers side with top-five ambitions, but their efforts were thwarted by costly defensive mistakes before the winning goal, once again from an opponent’s set piece.

“We’re frustrated [with how we conceded],” he said. “We did the same against Arsenal last week, with their first goal being a set-piece.

“It’s happened yet again today and we put so much emphasis and importance on set-pieces, especially corners because they’re a real chance to score.

“I think we’re a real threat from them, but at the other end, you’ve got to make sure that you defend and mark up.

“We’ve allowed a runner to get free and that’s punished us.

“That’s happened probably three or four times to us this season.”

City still could have rescued something from the game and had a big chance when a misfired pass by Dagny Brynjarsdottir gave Lucy Quinn a chance to equalise, only for the forward to shoot wildly over.

Quinn had already come close to breaking the deadlock at 0-0, with the hosts firmly in the game against the Hammers.

They also had a late penalty appeal turned down after Hawa Cissoko appeared to pull back Emily Whelan in the area.

The result leaves Carter’s team eight points adrift of 11th-placed Leicester City, and top flight safety, with just five games remaining.

And the interim boss felt his team’s performance should have resulted in at least a point.

“They left it all out there,” he added.

“We’d maybe liked to have had that