Birmingham City manager Gianfranco Zola has admitted that his side are "going through a difficult spell", but is confident that the positive results will soon arrive.

The Italian was controversially brought in to replace Gary Rowett at St Andrew's Stadium last month, at a time when the Blues were outside of the playoff zone on goal difference alone.

Zola has yet to win over disgruntled supporters, with Wednesday evening's 3-1 FA Cup loss to Newcastle United meaning that his winless start to life in the Midlands stretches to a seventh game - three draws and now four defeats.

Speaking to BBC Sport after the match, the former West Ham United boss said: "Our goal was a little bit too late and Newcastle are not a team that give anything away. We were down after our mistakes in the first half but in the second half we created enough to score a second goal but it didn't happen.

"We are going through a difficult spell so everything we do on the pitch has to be very hard work, while Newcastle can play three debutants and still be effective.

"It's strange as we've not had a big result to be smiling like me but I see a lot of things going on that I know it's not long before we come out on the pitch and are going to be enjoying more points than we are enjoying at the moment. I'm still convinced of that."

Birmingham, now nine points off the Championship's top six, return to action on Saturday with a trip to face Blackburn Rovers at Ewood Park.