West Brom increased their Premiership survival hopes at the expense of neighbours Birmingham with an important 3-1 win at St Andrews. Carling Cup winners last weekend, relegation candidates seven days later appears to be Birmingham's lot as they missed a chance to pull away from the lower reaches of the Premiership by falling to fellow strugglers West Bromwich Albion in the Midlands derby.
Albion have a habit of scoring goals in the second half against Birmingham, and saw it proved again with all the scoring coming in the second period.
After a dire first forty five minutes the game to life with three goals in the first ten minutes after the break.
The visitor's scored first through Youssouf Mulumbu after some poor defending from the Blues, but credit to the host's who hit back immediately and levelled through Jean Beausejour.
But Albion were not to be denied and went ahead again as James Morrison collected the ball and hit a fierce shot past Ben Foster.
With Birmingham now committed to attack West Brom bided their time before clinching the three points as Paul Scharner headed home from a tight angle with twenty minutes remaining.
West Brom now leapfrog Birmingham into 16th place - two points ahead of their Midlands rivals, who have two games in hand.
For Albion boss Roy Hodgson it was only his second away win in 29 matches as a top flight manager.
Referee: Mike Jones
Venue: St Andrews Attendance: 27,013
Birmingham scorers: Beausejour 48 West Brom scorers: Mulumbu 47, Morrison 58, Scharner 72
BIRMINGHAM 26 Foster 02 Carr 05 Johnson 06 Ridgewell (yellow card) (Murphy 79) 32 Davies 04 Bowyer (yellow card) 11 Bentley 18 Fahey (yellow card) 23 Beausejour (Phillips 67) 10 Jerome 17 Martins
Substitutes 13 Doyle, 03 Murphy, 21 Parnaby, 07 Larsson, 25 Mutch, 09 Phillips, 19 Zigic
WEST BROM 01 Carson 03 Olsson 20 Shorey 23 Meite 07 Morrison (Tamas 77) 11 Brunt 12 Reid 14 Thomas (Jara 66) 21 Mulumbu 33 Scharner (yellow card) 28 Fortune (Odemwingie 46)
Substitutes 13 Myhill, 30 Tamas, 36 Jara, 05 Tchoyi, 18 Vela, 24 Odemwingie, 31 Cox
