Todd Cantwell’s sublime 50th-minute volley looked like providing Rovers, who have endured a difficult week, with their first win of the campaign.
But Blues staged a remarkable recovery, equalising in the 90th minute through Jay Stansfield’s powerful penalty and even more astonishing, they managed to grab a winner in the eighth minute of stoppage time when Lyndon Dykes turned in a cross from the industrious Demarai Gray.
That made it two wins and a draw in all competitions for Birmingham and Davies said the hard work, desire and character were crucial in securing the win.
He said: “It was an excellent win. Last-minute winner, always something to cherish and savour, especially in front of 7,000 travelling fans. Fantastic win.
“I want hard work from the team and if there’s space to run, run. We’ve shown real good fitness. Demarai Gray has played 100 minutes and still had the legs to get up the pitch and have that moment. I love that about us. We are very dynamic with how we play, put opposition under pressure with our pressing, we counter-attack well. I love the desire.
“Also a contribution from our fans being down that end. They all set off to chase the ball and when he got there, it was a massive moment for him and Lyndon.
“It’s that intangible, it’s the character side that’s so important in football. A goal down away from home at Blackburn, is a very difficult situation. You can lose your head or discipline or start doing different things.
“What I love is we just look like us. We just got back to us, moved the ball quickly, the positions were there, with real intent, and we deserved to win this game.”
A “shocked” Valerien Ismael labelled the defeat as “cruel” but attributed the defeat to “terrible mistakes” from his team.
He said: “A tough one. I’m a human being, I have my emotion as well. Today I’m just shocked. Sometimes football can be really cruel. We made a great game, difficult preparation this week but the guys reacted well. At the beginning it as difficult. But Birmingham didn’t have the big chances.
“We were good on the control. We adjusted at half-time, we knew we needed to put a little bit more pressure on them. We found a solution and we forced the mistake and the momentum was on our side. We scored the goal. We managed very well, changed the shape to be more solid.
“Everything was in place but all of a sudden, there was a 3 v 1 situation on the side that we dealt with very badly. After that they scored the goal. There were 11 minutes of extra time – we managed 10 perfectly.
“We forced them to defend but all of a sudden again, set-pieces for us and one minute later, it’s 2-1 for them. It’s terrible but it’s on us. This loss is on us. We made two terrible mistakes. We have to move on and learn.”