Birmingham City head to Leeds United on Saturday striving for that elusive consistency.

The remarkable 3-3 draw at Millwall tended to capture their season in microcosm.

There was nothing in the game until Blues had a mad couple of moments.

They failed to deal with basic balls into the penalty area in the 11th and 13th minutes. And they went 3-0 down by the 18th, again not doing routine stuff well enough.

But then the fightback was hugely impressive.

The second-half performance was rated the best of the season by Lee Clark.

And Blues played some super football to restore parity.

Marlon King plundered the first domestic hat-trick of his career, and for a long spell it looked as if Blues would go on and score further goals.

In the end, it was an uplifting result and performance because of what had gone on in the opening quarter of the game.

And that’s the trouble with Blues: they have yet to sustain a certain level either from match to match, or in a match itself.

They went from defeating Bolton Wanderers to being biffed 5-0 at home by Barnsley, then travelled to then leaders Brighton & Hove Albion and won.

Against Cardiff City, the locals admitted that Blues had been one of the best teams they had seen this season – but a couple of lapses in concentration ultimately cost them. Whereas last season the defence was the bedrock behind Blues journey to the Championship play-off semi-finals, this campaign as a unit they have been less secure.

Injuries and a lack of continuity have taken a toll, and individuals have not hit the same heights as 2011-12.

So it’s off to Elland Road this weekend, another tricky venue, and which Blues turn up, it will be hard to predict. We have to put it right on the pitch and get out there and actually get the wins,” admits Curtis Davies. I hate to use the example of other clubs but Reading had a terrible start last season. They only won one of their first six games and they managed to go on and win the league.

“So the table doesn’t really tell the story until around Christmas and going into the New Year. That’s when you start to see the teams that are going to push and the ones that are going to fall away.

“And hopefully around that time we will be pushing and we will be back into the positions where we know we should be. We know we’re good enough players and we’re better than where we are in the league at the moment.”

Clark is hoping that Blues can take great heart from the second-half at the Den into Saturday’s fixture: Second-half we created enough chances to go on and win it ourselves and I thought it was probably our best half of the season.

“We were dynamic, we played with lots of energy, we created lots of chances and could have got more than the two goals we did in the second-half.

“I was pleased with the reaction of the group, how they came back together and stood up because Millwall is an intimidating place to start with and you could just crumble and it ends five, six, whatever.

“My players showed that unity, showed that togetherness, they fought for each other. I was proud of them. They could have taken the easy option.

“I said to them at half-time that they hadn’t showed people their true qualities as players, so just go and do that, no matter what the result was going to be. I was more down about that because I know what qualities they have got, what they’re about – and I think they showed that.”