Birmingham boss Gary Rowett sees positives in likely departure of Demarai Gray

Birmingham manager Gary Rowett is not downhearted at the prospect of losing star talent Demarai Gray in the transfer window.

Following the impressive 2-1 Sky Bet Championship home win over Brentford, Rowett declined to name the club likely to sign Gray - although Leicester City are considered favourites to complete a £3.75million deal.

Rowett said: "One Premier League club met the amount required and Demarai requested permission to speak to that club.

"Should the move go through I wish him all the best. He is an ambitious young player but we have shown that we have had two games without him and done well.

"The club have done all the right things and now we will have funds to strengthen the team. We can now move the team in a different direction and use the money wisely.

"Demarai is very ambitious and desperate to play in the Premier League and he backs his own ability to fulfil that dream."

Rowett continued: "We have won three games, drawn two and lost one in the last six games and are now only three points behind one of the really big teams in our division.

"We are massively punching above our weight but we now have the opportunity to strengthen our attacking options as we have not scored enough goals recently."

Rowett claimed Birmingham were worth the three points after improving their tempo in the second half against a determined Brentford side.

He said: "Without coming under too much pressure we showed great resolve to go for the winning goal after Brentford obtained their equaliser."

Birmingham's winning goal came from bargain buy Maikel Kieftenbeld, who marked the game with his first goal for the club since his £180,000 arrival during the summer in the 86th minute.

Jacques Maghoma gave Blues the lead following an impressive move involving Jon Toral, with Brentford hitting back with a well merited 77th equaliser from Phillip Hofmann.

It was Birmingham's third successive home win and in the process they leap-frogged over the London club to move to within two points of sixth-placed Ipswich.

Birmingham has never been one of Brentford's happiest hunting grounds and this proved no exception.

The visitors had the majority of the play but in the end they slumped to a narrow defeat which means they now have failed to win on their last eight visits to St Andrew's - with Birmingham successful in six of those games.

Brentford boss Dean Smith said: "It was disappointing as I thought we were the better team for long periods.

"It was a compliment to us how deep Birmingham played. They certainly frustrated their own supporters in the first half and they probably scored against the run of play on a counter attack.

"I thought Birmingham were happy to play for a point after our equaliser - but that is not our style.

"I thought Birmingham were lucky to have 11 players on the pitch in the second half after Toral's tackle on Jake Bidwell. For me it was a red card as he was certainly out of control when he made that tackle."