Birmingham City manager Chris Hughton has said that there is certainly no shame in losing to a club of the stature of Chelsea in the FA Cup.

Birmingham City did not manage to get into the quarter-final stage after they were knocked out by Chelsea in the fifth round.

Chris Hughton, however, was extremely proud of his players, who had worked extremely hard to bring Chelsea to the state of an FA Cup replay at the St Andrews. Chelsea were probably helped by the fact that they had sacked manager Andre Villas-Boas and had appointed Roberto di Matteo. The new manager syndrome worked in favour of Chelsea, as goals from Mata and Raul Meireles helped them to a 2-0 win.

Birmingham City were extremely confident of getting a result going into the match. They also looked like they would be a match for their Premier league opponents in every department of the pitch. Chelsea were coming into the match on a very poor run of form, which had seen manager Andre Villas-Boas lose this job. Andre Villas-Boas was sacked after the 1-0 defeat against West Brom during the weekend. Hence, Chelsea were not coming into the match with great confidence, but the arrival of a new manager did its trick.

“When you consider the amount of games we’ve had, the quality we’re up against, we just needed to stay in the game longer in the second-half. And then you hope to get to the stage where they become a little bit anxious. And what you’re able to do then is finish strong, which we did. “We had the opportunity with Jordon Mutch late on. But if that’s at 1-0, you are right back in it,” said Blues manager Chris Hughton. Birmingham City will focus their attention on the Championship.