Birmingham City will be aiming to return to winning ways in the Championship on Friday when they face Swansea City at St Andrew's.

After making the perfect start to life as Blues manager by beating Reading earlier this month, Lee Bowyer was unable to prevent his side from suffering a 3-0 defeat at the hands of promotion-chasing Watford before the international break.

Currently 21st in the Championship standings, Birmingham know that they will need to pick up points on a regular basis between now and May if they are to finish ahead of fellow strugglers Rotherham United.

Whilst the Blues are three points clear of the Millers, Paul Warne's side will fancy their chances of closing this particular gap as they still have four games in hand.

Making reference to the club's situation heading into the hectic Easter period, Birmingham defender Maxime Colin has insisted that he is ready to fight for survival.

Speaking to the Birmingham Mail about Bowyer's chance to work with the players over the current international break, the Frenchman said: "He [Bowyer] hasn't really had any time to do anything, so it'll be good, I think, for him to get to know everybody a bit better because he doesn't really know us.

"It'll be very good work with him.

"We need to fight.

"There are a few finals to go.

"That's the Championship, we're used to it.

"It's not new, so we'll be ready for that."

Having started four of Birmingham's last five league fixtures, Colin is likely to feature later this week in his side's showdown with Swansea.

GIVEMESPORT's Joshua Cole says...

When you consider that Birmingham are set to play six games in the space of 22 days next month, it is imperative that they pick up a positive result against the Jacks on Friday as it will provide them with some much-needed momentum.

Although Colin has averaged a relatively underwhelming WhoScored match rating of 6.65 this season, he could use his vast amount of experience at this level to his advantage in the coming weeks.

Having played 220 games in the Championship during his career, the defender knows exactly what it takes to compete in this division and thus could play a key role in helping his side avoid the drop.

Providing that Colin and his team-mates pick up their performance levels between now and May, Birmingham may be able to retain their second-tier status for another year.