Chris Hughton backed Marlon King to shrug off his horror miss for Birmingham City against Burnley.

Nikola Zigic set up King for an apparent tap-in in the 35th minute of last night's victory.

But King steered the ball wide of the post with an unguarded goal at his mercy.

"With Marlon's chance you thought it was 2-0, but it wasn't to be," said Hughton.

"If he had the same opportunity five minutes later he would have put himself in the same position.

"It won't affect him. I think if he was young it would be different. Marlon has been around too long for that.

"I thought his attitude after the miss was even better.

"The biggest disappointment for him will be that strikers like to score goals and he'll be looking at it as one less goal than he should have."

Blues success was important as it came in one of their three games in hand on Championship rivals.

And they maintained their unbeaten league record on home soil.

Hughton said: "Games in hand are important for us, but also home games.