Birmingham recorded their biggest victory since returning to the Sky Bet Championship as three set-piece goals helped them to a 4-0 win over lacklustre Portsmouth.

Chris Davies' side grabbed the initiative early on through Paik Seung-ho and further strikes in the second half from Tomoki Iwata and Christoph Klarer gave them breathing space before Keshi Anderson added a late fourth.

The hosts were even able to shrug off Jay Stansfield's fifth-minute penalty miss as John Mousinho's side suffered an afternoon to forget at St Andrew's.

A run of two victories in their last nine outings had put the brakes on a bright start to the campaign, but Birmingham established a solid early platform - and never looked back.

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Davies welcomed striker Marvin Ducksch back into the side following his return from a hamstring injury and the twice-capped Germany international was instrumental in creating the first real chance.

A neat turn saw him clipped in the area by Andre Dozzell. Stansfield stepped up, but saw Josef Bursik dived to his left to save.

Birmingham remained on the front foot and took a lead their early efforts deserved four minutes later when Paik was left free in the area to nod home Alex Cochrane's right-wing corner.

Portsmouth took their time to recover from that setback and although they enjoyed a good spell of possession just before the interval, they were unable to truly test James Beadle in the home goal.

However, the visitors failed to build on that and Birmingham wasted several chances before Iwata added a second.

Bursik blocked well from substitute Keshi Anderson within two minutes of the restart and Demarai Gray side-footed wide from eight yards with the goal at his mercy.

When Bursik's outstretched arm denied Iwata, it appeared as though Birmingham's afternoon would remain one of frustration.

But the Japan international managed to win a header at the near post from Tommy Doyle's 56th-minute corner to double the home side's advantage.

The game was put to bed five minutes later when Cochrane's inswinging free-kick from the left was nodded home by skipper Klarer with Pompey's defence nowhere to be seen.

Portsmouth had shown little as an attacking force and although they pressed in the latter stages, the Blues added a fourth through Anderson two minutes from time.

The winger tried his luck from the edge of the area and his effort took a huge deflection off Regan Poole before beating Bursik.

Portsmouth finally put Beadle's goal under threat with Mark Kosznovszky's shot in the dying seconds, but it was deflected on to the crossbar as Birmingham claimed their fourth clean sheet of the season.

The managers

Birmingham's Chris Davies:

"Obviously, that's the best we've played this season.

"I don't think they had a shot at our goal and we had probably six or seven big chances.

"So there was a lot in there. And a lot I'm happy about because I think it's been coming.

"We've been close in games, it's been tight and it's come down to fine margins, but I'm pleased we managed to bring that all together today."

Portsmouth's John Mousinho:

"We were really poor and deserved everything we got. We could have lost it by more. We started extremely badly and gave ourselves a mountain to climb.

"Birmingham missed a penalty early on and then the ball is in our net from a set-piece because we don't actually deal with it.

"They were all over us. But we got some good possession towards the end of the first half and we had a foothold in the game.

"Getting in at half-time just one down was a pretty good result considering some of the chances Birmingham had. That gave us a chance. But it was probably worse in the second half than it was in the first."

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