David Dunn scored twice as Blackburn held on to beat Birmingham 2-1 in a tight game at Ewood Park.
Birmingham old-boy comes back to haunt former club
David Dunn scored twice against his old club as Blackburn held on to beat Birmingham 2-1 in a tight game at Ewood Park.
Both sides worked their socks off throughout the tie in Lancashire, but the match was not one for the footballing purists.
Dunn opened the scoring after just five minutes as Birmingham failed to deal with a long ball to Nikola Kalinic, and it came back to the midfielder who hit a left-foot shot from outside the area which evaded Joe Hart in the Blues goal.
The score remained the same until 10 minutes after the break when James McFadden slotted home a free-kick from the right edge of the box - Jason Brown was a spectator as McFadden curled it past a poorly-placed wall and into the corner.
But Dunn had the last laugh as he nodded home an El-Hadji Diouf corner at the near post to seal the win and to all-but-secure Rovers' safety this season.
Although there seemed little prospect of a blockbuster in store before the start of play with Birmingham already comfortably positioned in mid-table, the opening stages were fairly frenetic.
Jason Brown, who was once again deputising in the Rovers goal for the injured Paul Robinson, looked to have made a costly error after only three minutes when he fumbled a cross at the feet of Cameron Jerome, but Martin Olsson was on hand to shepherd the ball from danger.
Opener
Just two minutes later, Dunn rifled Blackburn ahead against his former employers, taking down a failed clearance by Roger Johnson and lashing the ball past Hart.
The hosts were on the attack again soon after and Nikola Kalinic narrowly failed to make contact with El-Hadji Diouf's cross in the box.
At the other end McFadden almost pulled Birmingham level with a fierce strike from outside the area that Brown did well to turn around the post after it had taken a deflection on its way toward his goal. Liam Ridgewell headed the resulting corner over.
Morten Gamst Pedersen then tried a spectacular overhead kick, but was ruled offside.
Just after the half-hour mark Lee Bowyer lofted a ball into the danger zone which bounced down to Craig Gardner, but having taken a touch the former Aston Villa player blazed his shot high and wide.
Blues skipper Stephen Carr then whipped a low ball into the six-yard box, but Brown got down to smother it.
Six minutes before the break Diouf caused a scramble in the box with a delivery from the touchline that Hart struggled to deal with, but Ridgewell put the ball behind before Pedersen could get to it.
Dunn then slammed the ball past Hart in even more emphatic fashion from close range after being fed by Michel Salgado, but the Spaniard was adjudged to have committed a foul in the build-up and it remained 1-0.
Rovers seemed in control, but within 10 minutes of the restart, they had been pegged back.
Pedersen felt he was hard done by after referee Mark Clattenburg awarded Birmingham a free-kick just outside the box for a push on Johnson, but McFadden stepped up calmly to curl the ball around the Blackburn wall and into the bottom corner of the net.
Substitute Jason Roberts, who had come on for Kalinic at half-time, attempted to hit back on the hour, but after linking up well with Dunn and Pedersen and turning his man in the box, the striker's shot was blocked and went behind for a corner.
Lead restored
Seven minutes later though Rovers had regained their lead,
