[6] The team finished 20th in the Championship, having avoided relegation on the final day of the season despite losing their own match, after other results went in their favour and Wigan Athletic suffered a 12-point deduction for entering administration.

After a 2018–19 season in which, according to the Birmingham Mail, manager Garry Monk turned the team into "a side vastly superior than the sum of its parts" to keep them in the top half of the table until a run of losses in March and a nine-point deduction for breaches of the EFL's Profitability and Sustainability Rules led to a 17th-place finish.

[11] Monk's assistant, Pep Clotet, was appointed caretaker head coach, the remainder of the backroom staff stayed in post, and Craig Gardner was given a role as player-coach.

[26] According to Sky Sports, "Blues were saved by a combination of the woodwork – which Brentford hit three times before the break – and keeper Lee Camp",[27] and the only goal was scored by Pedersen, whose header from Seddon's cross "looped powerfully and perfectly" over the goalkeeper from outside the penalty area.

After a low-key and defensively sound first hour, Jutkiewicz converted Harding's cross, Giménez chested down Seddon's through ball and lobbed the goalkeeper, and loanee winger Jefferson Montero made a lively 10-minute cameo on his debut.

A penalty should have been awarded when Danny Batth hauled Giménez back, forced him to the floor and kicked him in the face,[34] and shortly after Dan Crowley replaced the ineffective Villalba, Stoke opened the scoring.

[37][38] An unchanged starting eleven struggled at home to Preston North End, who won the match with a first-half free kick that Camp pushed onto the post from which Sean Maguire tapped in the rebound.

Both Gardner and Pedersen hit the woodwork, and former Birmingham goalkeeper Darren Randolph made what BBC Sport's reporter dubbed a "string of sublime saves", before, with three minutes of normal time remaining, a defensive error led to an equaliser.

Away to Cardiff City, Pedersen gave them an early lead but they failed to convert their first-half superiority into goals, Dean conceded a penalty for shirt-pulling which according to BBC Sport's reporter "was tough to spot", and the momentum changed.

[51] Backup goalkeeper Connal Trueman made his first appearance of the season and Jérémie Bela his first start in a better team performance at Huddersfield Town, in which Birmingham came back from a goal behind when Roberts' header was deflected in off Jutkiewicz's shoulder.

[52][53] Ahead of the visit to Garry Monk's new club, Sheffield Wednesday, the former Birmingham manager claimed he had made an "error of judgment" in working with Clotet, suggested he was untrustworthy, and refused the customary pre-match handshake.

[62] Bottom-of-the-table Wigan Athletic celebrated the new year with their first away won of the season as, with two senior centre-backs injured, Clotet's selection of midfielder Gary Gardner as a makeshift central defender, in preference to Harding or the youngster Bajrami, backfired.

[67] Writing in The Sunday Times, Rod Liddle saw the incident as an example of the increasing trend for players, with the apparent support of their managerial staff, to "play possum" to provoke the referee into stopping an opposition attack for fear of missing a serious injury.

[69][70] Visitors Nottingham Forest scored early, but when Pedersen conceded a penalty, Camp saved and initiated a Birmingham attack which ended with Hogan's close-range equaliser from Jutkiewicz's headed pass.

[71] At Bristol City, despite Roberts' careless back-pass gifting the hosts a first-minute lead, Hogan was available to tap in the rebound from Bela's shot, and Birmingham went on to win 3–1,[72] and away at Barnsley, he missed a straightforward chance early in the game but scored a second-half winner.

[76] February ended with a 2–2 draw away to Queens Park Rangers in which Bela injured a hamstring and Hogan's two goals took his record to six in seven league matches,[77] which earned him the EFL Championship Player of the Month award.

Of those whose contracts expired on 30 June, Camp, Hogan and Clarke-Salter extended their deals to cover the last nine games,[82][83][70] while the rest, including first-team regulars Maghoma and Mrabti, did not.

[85] With two weeks to go before the restart, Birmingham announced that Clotet would be leaving at the end of the season to "explore other coaching opportunities",[2] having, in his view, fulfilled his brief of improving the playing style, developing young and home-grown players, and still getting acceptable results within restrictive financial constraints.

[89][90] Jutkiewicz scored after five minutes against Swansea City, but increasingly characteristic defensive frailty, particularly in home matches, led to a 3–1 loss,[91] after which board and Clotet came to a mutual agreement to part ways immediately.

[92] Hogan missed an early penalty at home to fellow strugglers Charlton Athletic, who took the lead after an hour; Bellingham came off the bench, "lifted Blues with his energy and ingenuity", and crossed for Dean's blocked shot that was turned in by Jutkiewicz for a stoppage-time equaliser and a career-record 15th goal of the season.

[93] Yet another failure to defend set pieces led to a 2–0 defeat away to Preston North End, which left Birmingham facing the last match of the season, at home to Derby County, unlikely to go down but still not safe.

Clotet made seven changes from the previous league match, with Camp, Clarke-Salter, Davis, Maghoma, Crowley, Montero and Giménez replacing Trueman, Jutkiewicz, Bellingham, Bela, McEachran, Mrabti and Šunjić in the starting eleven.

Birmingham were obliged to use their last substitute when Harding came on for the tiring Clarke-Salter, and were in danger of being overrun when Maghoma's run played in Bela whose 90th-minute shot was diverted low into the far corner to give his team a 2–1 win.

[108] Clotet chose to make nine changes from the team that started the opening league match, and the resulting eleven included four debutants: Jake Clarke-Salter and Geraldo Bajrami in defence, and Agus Medina and Jude Bellingham in midfield.