Last Updated: Thu, 01 Dec 2011 15:07
Nikola Zigic has received the backing of Birmingham manager Chris Hughton following his costly penalty miss in Birmingham's 1-0 Europa League defeat in Braga.
The Serbian had City's golden opportunity of a dominant opening quarter at Estadio Municipal de Braga after Wade Elliott was brought down by Ewerton in the area after just 11 minutes.
But the 6ft 8in forward could only watch as Braga stopper Quim dived to his left to parry the ball away, and Blues were made to pay shortly after half-time as the hosts benefited from a match-winning piece of fortune as Hugo Viana's strike took a generous deflection off Curtis Davies to beat Boaz Myhill.
But Hughton refused to question his decision not to start with King, who scored from the spot in the club's previous Group H clash against Club Brugge to secure a 2-2 draw.
"If it wasn't Nikola who took it then it would have been someone else," Hughton said. "If Marlon had been on the pitch there's no guarantee he would have scored.
"Nikola's a good striker of the ball and you just hope when you get that situation that he scores, unfortunately for us he didn't."
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