Fulham 2 Birmingham 0:MOHAMED AL FAYED wanted everyone to share in the joy of staying up. "What is it you want from me, you want some words?" asked the Fulham chairman of reporters, as he strolled the Craven Cottage pitch in the company of Flavio Briatore, the playboy joint-owner of Queens Park Rangers, and a dozen or so advisers and bodyguards. "How about I give you all a Viagra?"
The previous Saturday, after an hour at Manchester City, Fulham were as good as down. They had trailed 2-0 as Birmingham led Liverpool by the same margin and all hope appeared lost. Fulham rallied, though, Diomansy Kamara rounding off the comeback with an injury-time winner while at St Andrew's, Birmingham were pegged back to 2-2.
To kick open the door to survival Fulham still had to register successive Premier League victories for the first time since September 2006 while they also needed Tottenham to do them a favour at Reading. In front of a frenzied gallery, they got their result and found it enhanced by Reading's defeat.
Birmingham have been undermined by defensive vulnerabilities and they hurtled towards the abyss when they failed to track Brian McBride on Jimmy Bullard's 52nd-minute free-kick. McBride headed down for the far corner.
Erik Nevland moved the game beyond them when he punished a misjudgment from Franck Queudrue.
