Birmingham City boss hails Wigan Athletic's 'winning mentality'

Despite their opponents being reduced to 10 men inside 10 minutes - after Joe Bennett was wrongly sent off - Birmingham barely laid a glove on Leam Richardson's side.

And the visitors went home with the spoils after Nathan Broadhead took a pass from fellow substitute Charlie Wyke with eight minutes to go before drilling past John Ruddy.

"I'm obviously very disappointed to lose the game," said Eustace.

"I thought we started really well, the first 20 minutes or so were excellent.

"But the sending-off did change the course of the game, it's something we need to learn from, we need to be better with the ball.

"They sat in a lot more, with the 5-3-1 or 5-2-2, and we really struggled to break them down.

"We got frustrated, they managed the game very well, but the quality from us just wasn't there.

"It's also about individuals doing their jobs, a couple switched off for their goal, and we got punished.”

Eustace had said in the lead-up he was expecting Wigan to give his side their toughest game of season.

When asked whether his premonition had come true, Eustace added: "It's just the mentality of Wigan.

"They're used to winning, they've just come up as champions of League One, they've got that togetherness and they've got that grit.

"They've kept their squad largely from last year, and added to it with quality, and I knew it was going to be a difficult game."