Stoke City have eased their drop zone pressure by holding off a determined Birmingham City outfit at Britannia Stadium.
The Potters were cruising at 2-0 after Robert Huth lashed home from close range in the 44th minute before Ricardo Fuller produced a super piece of play to double the lead with 20 minutes remaining.
Birmingham had come back from a two-goal deficit to draw with West Ham on the weekend so a comeback was not beyond them and it began three minutes after Fuller's goal when Keith Fahey pounced on a Danny Higginbotham error before Cameron Jerome made it 2-2 with his second goal for the week in the 76th minute.
With a draw now looking likely, Stoke's Dean Whitehead stepped up to prod home a Matthew Etherington cross with five minutes left to give his side their first win in their last five attempts to push them up to 15th as Birmingham dropped to 17th.
Stoke City: 3 (Robert Huth 44', Ricardo Fuller 71', Dean Whitehead 85') Birmingham City: 2 (Keith Fahey 74', Cameron Jerome 76')
Venue: Britannia Stadium, Stoke-on-Trent Crowd: 26,381 Referee: Mark Clattenburg Yellow cards: SC - nil BC - nil
Starting Line-Ups
SC Asmir Begovic (gk), Danny Higginbotham, Abdoulaye Faye, Danny Collins, Robert Huth, Rory Delap, Dean Whitehead, Matthew Etherington (Wilson 90'), Jermaine Pennant (Whelan 73'), Kenwyne Jones, Ricardo Fuller (Walters 90')
Subs - Thomas Sorensen (gk), Glenn Whelan (73'), Marc Wilson (90'), Jonathan Walters (90'), Eidur Gudjohnsen, Andy Wilkinson, Tuncay Sanli
BC Ben Foster (gk), Scott Dann, Roger Johnson, Liam Ridgewell, Stephen Carr, Craig Gardner, Barry Ferguson, Jean Beausejour (Fahey 61'), Sebastian Larsson, Cameron Jerome, Nikola Zigic
Subs - Colin Doyle (gk), Keith Fahey (61'), Lee Bowyer, Stuart Parnaby, Kevin Phillips, Alexander Hleb, Matt Derbyshire
Need your Stoke City news fix? Click here for all Potters news and transfer rumours.
Need your Birmingham City news fix? Click here for all Blues news and transfer rumours.