Birmingham City head to Middlesbrough on Saturday seeking to right the wrongs of their last away day.

A fortnight ago Blues got bashed 5-2 at Hull City, conceding the first goal after just 49 seconds.

It got worse and the goals in the 83rd and 87th minutes, for Peter Lovenkrands and Chris Burke respectively, were mere consolations. Hull had wrapped the game up well before then.

Until that game, Blues had travelled fairly well in the Championship. In the ‘away table’, they are still ranked 11th.

It’s at St Andrew’s where they have not been as productive, certainly not as they were last season.

But Boro themselves are a bit of an enigma. They are still on the fringes of the play-off zone, but they have lost 17 games – and won the same amount.

It’s either boom or bust for the Teessiders who are in a run of form that has seen them triumph just once in their last six outings.

Blues moved up to 14th, their highest position since September, after the defeat of Derby County.

And what a huge result that turned out to be.

Had they not come back from 1-0 down at half-time they would be right in the thick of the relegation battle.

They are still not safe yet, or course. But nor are a stack of other teams currently lying mid-table.

A mere eight points separate the bottom side Bristol City and 12th-placed Charlton Athletic. The bottom three are all on 39 points, just two from safety.

Nothing is still set in stone, and Lee Clark has urged his team not to take anything for granted.

“It’s mental,” said Clark. “The league is absolutely crazy.

“We have just got to look to the next game.

“There is still a long way to go. Teams below us got great results on Saturday, too. You can’t take anything for granted.

“We have just got to concentrate on what we have to do in the remaining nine games, starting Saturday.”

And as for Blues recent away form, Clark said: “We had one massive blip at Hull, we want to put that right.

Individual performances in the Derby game will have given him food for thought as he picks his team for the clash at the Riverside.

He selected Shane Ferguson at left-back in the absence of Mitchell Hancox (hamstring), who had played there in the previous four fixtures.

Paul Robinson continued at centre-half, even though Steven Caldwell was available again following illness.

Caldwell was an unused substitute against the Rams.

Then there were the displays of goalscorers Wes Thomas and Nathan Redmond, who both came off the bench at half-time and injected a new lease of life into Blues.

“Shane Ferguson was class, even when it wasn’t going too well for us at first,” enthused Clark.

“I thought he was the stand-out player.

“He’s given us a right dilemma because I thought his best position was left wing. Now I know he’s very good in both – on the wing and left-back.”

Clark added: “In the second-half, we had to play at a higher tempo, match Derby’s work ethic, their drive and will to win. We did that.

“The lads who came on helped make a difference, we had lots of power and pace in the team in the second-half and it showed.”