Chris Davies was full of praise for his Birmingham players after they ended their first season back in the Sky Bet Championship with a 10th-placed finish following a 1-1 draw at Portsmouth.
August Priske’s goal cancelled out Adrian Segecic’s early opener and earned Blues a point.
Davies said: “I think it’s been a season of real growth for us all in the club.
“It was a real unknown coming back into the Championship, so for us to come up as a club and compete like we have done and finish 10th is something we should be really proud of.
“It’s been 10 years since the club has achieved that, so I’m proud of the players and I thank them for their efforts.
“I think we were the better team throughout the game. We started a little bit slowly and conceded a poor goal but grew back into it.
“We carried a threat throughout the match and had two or three big chances, so I’m disappointed we didn’t actually end up winning that game with how we played.”
Portsmouth took the lead after eight minutes when in-form forward Segecic fired home from 12 yards from Jordan Williams’ cross – his fifth goal in his last three games.
The visitors hit back in the 19th minute thanks to Priske’s far-post header from Kai Wagner’s corner.
Portsmouth’s Ben Killip was the busier of the two goalkeepers after that but neither side could find a winner.
Pompey end the season with just one defeat in their last eight games but doubts remain over manager John Mousinho’s future at the club following summit talks with the owners.
Mousinho said: “The meetings were nothing about me. We have not discussed my future once, quite rightly. It is all about the club and working together.
“It’s close to £60million the owners have put into the club.
“They have always been willing to back us, but the difficulty is the Championship and that bite point between how much we spend and the risk of destabilising the club.
“We are going to try and come up with a solution, but the talks were about what we want to do with the football club over the next three to five years.
“In terms of today I thought we played well in patches, started well and got the goal we deserved.
“Individually the performance was pretty good but my issue was a lack of quality at times when the ball broke down.
“We could have lost, could have won and everything in between, so a point was probably a fair result.”
