MANCHESTER City blew Birmingham away with three second-half goals at Eastlands to record their biggest Premiership win since August.
New boss Stuart Pearce has reignited the Blues, and though the former England skipper could not claim the opening 45 minutes to be the best ever seen, there was still enough spirit to launch a second-half assault Birmingham could not repel.
The hosts did enjoy a large degree of good fortune when they took the lead, Robbie Fowler's header bouncing back off a post before hitting Maik Taylor and rolling in.
After that though, City seized command. Late efforts from Richard Dunne and Antoine Sibierski were no more than they deserved and the chants of `Psycho, Psycho' directed at the home dug-out left no room for wondering who the Blues fans want to lead their club next season.
In a flat opening period, few caused a quickening of the pulse.
Predictably, one who managed it was Shaun Wright-Phillips, so it was pretty unfortunate for the England international that he was also responsible for blowing by far the best chance of the half after just 45 seconds.
After Kiki Musampa had wriggled his way to the by-line, Fowler turned the Dutchman's cut-back through a crowd of Birmingham bodies and against the base of a post.
Taylor scrambled desperately back and Jamie Clapham assumed brace position on the goalline as the rebound rolled invitingly out to Wright-Phillips.
But, so soon into his first Premiership start since the knee operation that ruled him out for six weeks, the inspirational little winger opted to try and drill a shot into the roof of Taylor's net. Instead he succeeded only in blasting hopelessly over.
It was tough luck on Wright-Phillips, who proceeded to mesmerise the Birmingham defence with some typically mazy right-wing raids. At one stage he sent two visiting players completely the wrong way just by standing on the ball, recovering his ground far quicker than either of his opponents to almost set up a City chance.
Creativity
At least in Wright-Phillips, Pearce's men could claim some creativity. On the evidence of the opening 45 minutes, the visitors didn't possess any.
Aside from a Darren Anderton free-kick which David James dropped after it flashed through the City wall, Birmingham's only incisive attack ended with Emile Heskey lashing over after Mario Melchiot had back-heeled a long ball into the striker's path.
Thankfully, the opening 15 minutes of the second half served up substantially more goalmouth action than the previous 45.
Even before the extreme slice of good fortune that saw the hosts go ahead, Birmingham were bemoaning their luck as Clinton Morrison's expert finish from Jermaine Pennant's cross was ruled out for offside.
Morrison and his manager were incensed by the decision but, while borderline, TV replays proved it to be right.
There was no doubt over the effort which broke the deadlock immediately afterwards, except for who should be credited with it.
Fowler will probably claim his 10th goal of the campaign but, the fact that his header from Musampa's cross was heading back out of the goal as it struck Taylor and rolled in will be enough for the record books to confirm it should belong to the Birmingham keeper.
Pennant came close to levelling when his curling free-kick beat James but flicked off the bar. That was nothing to the chance Heskey spurned midway through the half though. At '5million, Steve Bruce expects more of the England international than the complete mishit he produced when substitute Stan Lazaridis rolled the most inviting of crosses into his path 10 yards out.
If that was bad, Heskey's attempt to challenge Dunne as the Irishman strode onto Fowler's far post free-kick was pitiful and with the most cursory of shrugs, the defender won himself a free header which he duly planted into the corner.
Still the agony was not over for Birmingham, who fell even further behind five minutes from time when Morrison handled Wright-Phillips' corner, providing Sibierski with the opportunity to stroke home the spot-kick and set the seal on back-to-back home wins for only the third time since City moved into Eastlands in 2003.
What did you make of the performance? Have your say.
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if we dont get a move on and make sp the permanent boss a club like west ham or some one else will. he doesnt care what level he manages at because all he wants to do is give back what he learned and he'll do that with passion. i think 'psycho' could be the best thing to happen to city since allison/mercer.give sp a 4 year contract now so we can look forward to a brilliant season next season and hopefully with the way we are playing we will be entering the uefa cup a compitition sp will no doubt rise the boys to the occasion and a bit of consistency to go with it in the league. just think if we had beaten wba, norwich, fulham,bolton and blackburn at home which in fairness we should have because besides the bolton game we were winning in each match we wouldn't be talking about uefa cup we would be sitting proudly in 4th for a place in the champions league.im already looking forward to next year. sp for the job hands down!!!!!!!!!!!!!
SP is the man...3pts again, not bad for guy who people say don't have the experience. Motivating others and have them carry out the plan brings results. SP for Manager. Come on the Blues!
Great result and good to see City working hard for the full 90 minutes. Richard Dunne is the best centre back in the premier league - deserves B#120,000 per week if only City could afford it!!
That was dreadful! How we won 3-0 I don't know. Sack Dunne, Sibierski and Fowler now. They were dreadful. Sack SP now. Appoint Mourhino straight away!
Good that Dunne got his reward with a goal at last, he has to be City's Player of the Year. Steve Bruce is moaning that their disallowed goal was
"minimally offside." So does he want it to be allowed? Dreadful team, Birmingham, dreadful manager, dreadful place, dreadful accent. Come on, City, win every game left in the season!
Can't comment with only a few highlights n MOTD, but I love it. City are actually on a run! Keep it going. Love it!
Back to Back WINS at Home Yipppeeee!
Good performance by everyone. Robbie was unlucky not to score after hitting the wordwork twice. SWP was good but that miss....needs time to get that sharpness back. I thought Dunne and Distan were fantastic at the back (with a little help from the linesman) and we are looking good in the table. We picked up 2 points on Villa, Charlton, Hotspurs and Middlesbrough so lets hope we keep this momentum into the clask with Rovers.
we was easily the better team but lets be honest we wasnt that good but hey we picked three points up with 3 goals and a clean sheet. 2 home back to back victories under pearce, cant all be bad. however seeing mcmanamn on the bench did concern me abit.
Three points that we probably wouldn't have got under KK. As well as last night, we are playing two other teams that we did poorly against last season and we only took two points off Brum, Pompey and Boro. We've bettered that in one game. Very efficient performance last night against as team who didn't offer much but at least tried to play some football, in contrast to their defensive performance last season. Thought Reyna was superb - didn't put a foot wrong all night doing the sort of job linking defence and attack that McMananman should have done for us. Only criticisms would be of Jordan - he still seems a bit lost playing with the big boys and leaves too much space for attackers on his side of the pitch - and Barton's miserable attempts to pass a ball accurately over more than 5 yards. Take a tip from Reyna, Joey and keep it nice and simple. Still don't think Distin is the right captain though. There were a couple of occasions in the first half very close together where Musampa & Barton made bad mistakes and it was Dunney who shouted at them - give him the band for next season please SP. See you all at blackburn on Saturday!
JUST GIVE HIM THE JOB!!!! We still need some new faces in key positions, and they were a poor side, but there has been a definate sea-change in the side since SP's appointment. Nice to be smiling at games again. Just a word of praise for Dunnie though. I know I'm always singing his praises (even when he makes mistakes) but Player of the Season or what! Never put a foot wrong and scored to boot. All that and the Rags lose with 9 men! I must be dreaming...
The first half was awful to watch both teams looking like their holidays were booked already, in the second half we stepped it up and they just got worse in the end i felt sorry for Melchiot by far and away the man of the match, the guy has some engine and when you think we should have signed him instead of mills how it could have been different signing twice the player for half the wages.
great stuff ... thoroughly enjoyed the last 15mins of the game last night! we gonna sign Kiki permanently or what? The guys got better and better and it looks like the rest of the team have plenty of confidence in him. It was interesting to see how much of the ball he got last night considering SWP was back. In the games before SWP got injured he wasn't getting much at all - everything was going down the right. But the team have had to adjust and Kiki has benefited from this. As a result we had 2 excellent wingers both getting plenty of the ball last night. Sign him up SP!
Not the greatest performance and atmosphere was shocking again until we scored - outsung by about 1000 birmingham City fans in a 42000 crowd???? BUT we won, and all credit to the boys for grinding it out. Joey had a bit of a shocker last night an Kiki sometimes seems to be in his own little world but the plus point were SWP having some great little cameos, Distin and Dunne outstanding in defence but my MOM was Reyna. He was the sparkle in the midfield. Very tidy, good defence but more importantly he created beautifully and barely gave the ball away at all. Dare I say almost looked a bit like Ali B...Well done City and well done SP one more win and I think the job will be yours.
If Ferdinand's worth 120k/w, what's Dunnie worth?? Hope he signs that contract soon.
I still think it will be a 'step backwards'; but there is no denying that it will be difficult for the board not to give SP the job next season, especially if we continue winning games. Well done SP.
A few points (quite apt really): Singing The Blues, you must be Swigging The Booze if you think Reyna was like Ali B last night. Although I readily admit, I've been pleasantly surprised by Reyna's passing, workrate, and off the ball positional play recently. I thought Barton was great last night, and yet still people criticise him because he doesn't have a 110% accurate pass ratio. Idiots. Kiki is turning from someone who flattered to deceive, into a real player, even defending well to boot last night. Get him signed. Pearce must get this job, that much is clear. Psycho was also clearly the most animated man in the stadium last night, and certainly one of the most vocal. Anyone of you that were there, and just sat quiet sniffing your Bovril should be ASHAMED of yourselves, that atmosphere was a DISGRACE. As for those who normally go, and decided not to bother last night YOU ARE EVEN WORSE. We have a responsibility to make a bit of noise, and too many people are just sat there whinging on about nothing. I suspect these are the same cretins that booooooo, when things aren't going so well. Support the team, muted morons. Btw, if 'Welsh nutcase' Robbie Savage injures SWP or any of our players on Sat, he should be hunted down and crushed like the rabid dog he so clearly is.
Goataldo...No, Ali is in a different class, but Reyna's link play was excellent, not only that he showed vision last night so we'll have to agree to disagree that there wasn't some similiraties. Joey B - I'm one of his biggest fans, and yep, I can let the odd stray pass go but last night he did the hard work of winning the ball then proceeded to pass it straight to one of their players - just an off night after a great performance at Fulham. Agree with you wholeheartedly about the crowd though, it felt like there was 12000 there last night not 42000
I goto football to watch a football match not to sing for that i go to watch a band. Last nights game had the definate end of season feel that they tried to get rid of in football both teams have nothing to play for the money for finishing higher didnt seem to inspire birmingham they were dreadful especially their defence and maik taylor had a shocker.
Goataldo, some of us can't and I am not ashamed to be one of them! In case you didn't know, this whole evening of Premier League football was the games that would have been played on Easter Saturday when I would most certainly have gone! However, midweek is rarely possible for many London fans because we have work to do and travelling to Manchester midweek takes two to three times as long as on a Saturday necessitating time off, which I can't afford and getting backk at 2-3am! When I was young, fine,but I am not anymore, as aren't some of the other London Blues so we simply can't and don't! Delighted with the win but don't tar all the City fans with the same brush you moron!
One of the Marks of a good side ,is the ability to win even when you play poorly .(something we hardly ever achieved under KK) Another is to play well ... 1 out of 2 aint bad , i suppose .
Yes the Crowd should be more vocal but it will take Time .
We have become used to seeing our Team lose after the kind of 1st half we saw last night. If Brum had anything about them ,it might have happened again .Instead we were the ones who raised our game ,this is a very good sign.
It does not however ,signal that we are suddenly a top Team ... more work to be done .
There has been clear progress under SP ,with regard to fitness,coaching and attitude.
If we can add a bit more confidence and skill to that ... then we could be going places .
The Fact that we are excited about 8 points from 15 (ok 12) shows just how low our Expectations sank under KK.
Let's see a winning run before we get too carried away . Unbeaten til the end of the Season will do for starters.
Bit of a debate going on about Barton so I thought I'd pitch in. His occasional call to arms pieces in the press are invariably followed by a lacklustre performance. Thought SP's comment this week that Barton see's himself as a rival to Zidane was pretty telling. He reminds me of Michael Brown when he was at City, bit of talent, loads of effort but nowhere near the finished article. Hopefully SP can channel Barton's clear enthusiasm in to performances. Got to say that his pass completion ratio should be a concern to everyone. As a central midfielder his job is to get us the ball not give it away - the hardest thing to do in football is get the ball back once you've lost it. Here endeth the lesson. Good result, fair performance. CTID
Andrew, Brentford, so are you telling me that 6000 of our fans have that excuse? Don't be so naC/ve, precious one. Naturally there are exceptions to the rule, i.e. "I couldn't resist the attraction of living in Brentford", "me dog died", "me Gran ate me ticket sir" but the cold hard facts are obvious; too many people can't be bothered, some of them even when they do turn up! You should realise I'm not tarring all the City fans with the same brush - just the lazy ones, which you may well not be, so don't feel insulted. There were tickets on sale up to kick off, which should have been snapped up locally; not everyone's skinted, it's APATHY. By the way I was chatting to some fans from West Galway after the game, they seem to manage OK, hehehe. And Mr Wiskas, you go to watch bands do you? And you sing? Well done. I now realise how WRONG I am for wanting people to be vocal in a positive manner toward our team. Someone should tell Stuart Pearce and Joey Barton that they're WRONG as well, but perhaps someone who can string a sentence together. Singing The Blues, fair comment, I have no criticism whatsoever of Reyna (in current form!)
Its disappointing hearing fans criticism of each other about the lack of atmosphere last night, its the wrong way forward to resolve the situation. It was my fist game this season and as such i recognise that it wouldnt be right for me to criticise people for not singing. I have to thank all manchester city fans who have attended games this season and supported the team. I came away slightly disappointed that the Birmingham crowd were allowed to make such noise without much reply whilst the score was still level. I would like all the home supporters who are not very vocal to attend a few away matches to see the way our fans should respond to any jibes from opposing fans. In terms of singing our away fans are second to none and its always a privilege to travel with them and give support to the team. The pleasure will be all mine once more when we travel to Blackburn and i am intent on going there and making as much noise as my throat will allow ( throat quite sore from last night ). I think things will see a gradual improvment if we stick with sp and keep a bit of stability. Come on you blues.
Goataldo - very funny mate! You want to chill out a bit though before you have a thrombosis.
Must agree though, something needs to be done about the atmosphere. I'm not sure it's the singing (or lack of) that's the major problem, it's all about attitude. How often do we hear "typical City" or groan when an ex-player comes off the bench for the opposition and think "he's sure to score". Winds me up no end.
My biggest gripe is those muppets who turn up and boo their own.
Danny Mills is not the greatest player in the world by any stretch of the imagination, but when he's got a Blue shirt on and is on the pitch, he gets my support no matter what. At the end of the day, criticising during the game only produces a negative vibe and doesn't help anyone. You can let off steam at half time/end of the game talking to your mates about the game - though I guess the Boo Boys are friendless!
At the end of the day, those who come to boo should stay at home. I'd rather have 30,000 committed, positive supporters attend each week than 48,000 of which 18,000 wnat to do the team down.