On-loan winger Alex Henshall made his Blackpool debut as a 61st minute sub as the table-propping Seasiders beat fellow strugglers Millwall 1-0 at Bloomfield Road.
Manager Mick McCarthy, whose side face the Lions at the Den next Saturday, sent the 20-year-old out on loan in order to play matches with his opportunities having been limited to four sub appearances and one start in the Capital One Cup tie at Crawley since joining the Blues last summer.
"He needs to play some games,” McCarthy said. "Whether he gets them there I don’t know, but he’s probably got more chance of getting them there than he has with me at the minute. I’ve got Tabby and Hunty.
"Hopefully he can. He played against Birmingham, came on for the last 10 minutes and probably created to the goal. He was pretty good there in that last 10 minutes.”
Elsewhere, Elliott Hewitt netted his first career goal for loan club Colchester as they defeated Peterborough 2-0 at London Road. The 20-year-old is with the League One side until January 17th.
Jack Marriott was in the Woking side which drew 2-2 at Oxford City in the FA Trophy, while defender Omar Sowunmi made his debut for Lowestoft Town as the Trawler Boys lost 2-0 to Hednesford Town in the Vanarama Conference North.
Meanwhile, neither Paul Taylor nor Anthony Wordsworth were in the Rotherham side which lost 1-0 at Brentford, despite their half-season loan deals covering this weekend.
The duo seem unlikely to remain with the Millers and McCarthy says they will have to find new clubs as they won’t be involved at Portman Road.
"Their loan deals are still running but they won’t be coming back and playing. It’s up to them to get themselves clubs or get themselves deals elsewhere.
"They haven’t been playing for Rotherham lately. They started off playing and then that’s changed somewhat. I think Tayls has been involved, I’m not so sure Woody has.
"I spoke to [Millers manager] Steve Evans about them both. He’s having his own troubles, so we’ll let it run its course and we’ll see. It’s up to him. But if they don’t take either of them then it’s up to them and their agents to get themselves another club.”