Birmingham 1 – 3 West Brom

Tired Blues fall to Battling Baggies.

Birmingham were brought back to Earth and back into the relegation fight as West Brom took another leap towards safety at St Andrews.

The celebrations of their Carling Cup success the previous week were brought to an immediate halt as Alex McLeish's side suffered crushing blow at the hands of their local rivals and now find themselves in the thick of a wide open battle for Premiership survival.

Making 5 changes to the side that upset Arsenal at Wembley, McLeish claimed that the Cup victory had taken a lot out of his players and that rest was the only way to ensure his squad was ready and able to mount their fight against relegation as the season draws to a close.

"Wembley was a factor in the performance today and ultimately the result

"There were five enforced changes and it wasn't the same team that played last week.
"It's not easy to turn out an almost completely different team the next week and expect to have a scintillating performance.

"There were some tired legs as well and although we slotted one or two players in to try and get a positive result we never really got enough inspiration in the areas I was expecting.

Neither side was able to make an impact in a drab first half, but two minutes after the restart West Brom took the lead through striker Mulumbu.

An immediate reply from Jean Beausejour pulled the Blues level, the Chilean winger stabbing away Bowyers low cross just 90 seconds after going behind

But Birmingham couldn't move onwards and upwards and when James Morrison stepped past Davies and let fly, the midfielders thunderous strike flew past Foster in the Birmingham goal and edged the Baggies a step closer to a vital away win.

The 3 points were sealed on 72 minutes when Scharner headed past Foster from a tight angle after meeting Morrison's cross at the far post.

With the win Hodgson finally has his first win as the Baggies Manager while McLeash now has the worry of being in the heart of the relegation fight.

"It's a bad loss but nothing is decided yet," he said.
"We know we're in a battle and we knew we were in a battle before.
"I don't know who will be back for Everton but whoever plays will have to do a lot better than we did today and defend a lot better but I still back this team and this squad to come back from this."