John Eustace has criticised the EFL for their fixture scheduling, with the Birmingham City boss frustrated by the lack of recovery time for his side ahead of Friday night's clash with Sunderland.

The Blues were in action on Tuesday night, grabbing a last minute equaliser against Swansea City to extend their unbeaten stretch at St Andrew's to six matches.

While Eustace was delighted with the point, he's hit out at the EFL for the "poor" scheduling that means his side will be in action just 72 hours after the Swansea game. The visit of Sunderland was brought forward from Saturday afternoon because it was selected for live Sky coverage.

Eustace said: "The schedule of the league is really tough.

"It's not right - we play too many games in a short period of time. To go again on Friday now, with Sunderland not playing this week, it's poor.

"We have got to keep going, we have one more game until the break so we just have to get on with it. I have said about the staff, the medical staff, the sports science team, the physios, the analysts, the chefs – everyone will be working their socks off from now to get the lads prepared for Friday. I am very, very grateful we have got fantastic support staff at the club and everyone is 100% committed to making sure these boys are ready to go again on Friday.”

Tuesday night's Championship games were the fixtures that were initially due to be held on Saturday, September 10 but were postponed due to the death of Queen Elizabeth II.

While most of those fixtures were rearranged to take place this week, Sunderland’s rescheduled clash against Millwall will be held on Saturday, December 3 at 12.30pm.

Despite his fixture frustrations, Eustace was delighted with the fighting spirit of his side as Troy Deeney hit an 89th minute leveller against Swansea. And although he believes his players will be tired on Friday night, he has warned Sunderland that they can still expect a "fighting performance".

He said: “I am delighted with the effort of the group, I thought we deserved a point at least out of the game, the character the boys showed was a different class.

Turning his attention to Friday's visit of Sunderland, he said: "All I expect is for us to be competitive and hard to play against.

"There will be some tired bodies for sure but we'll be ready and we want to put on another fighting performance. Win, lose or draw, everyone can see we're committed and that's what I expect to see again on Friday."

Birmingham are 10th, three points shy of the top six and four clear of Sunderland.

Sunderland head for St Andrew's looking to bounce back from the disappointment of the Cardiff defeat and sign off for the World Cup break on a high .

They'll be backed by more than 2,200 away supporters, a sell-out following.