Holland double seals victory

FA Premiership / Birmingham 1 Charlton Athletic 2 : The sceptics who doubted Birmingham City's ability to chase the game were…

FA Premiership / Birmingham 1 Charlton Athletic 2: The sceptics who doubted Birmingham City's ability to chase the game were vindicated last night when Charlton Athletic became the first team to win at St Andrew's this season.

Charlton's victory, courtesy of two goals from captain Matt Holland, means Alan Curbishley's side have now won three games in succession on their travels.

For Birmingham, Holland's two goals doubled the tally they have conceded at home. And with the previous two coming from Fulham, it appears that London clubs are unwelcome visitors.

Birmingham's unexpectedly successful start to the season has been fuelled by a solid defence, which given manager Steve Bruce's previous incarnation as an obdurate centreback is perhaps only to be expected. Eight clean sheets had been posted in 10 games and the goals against tally of five made Bruce's rearguard the Premiership's most parsimonious.

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Birmingham first threatened in the sixth minute when Stan Lazaridis slipped a short pass to David Dunn whose low shot from a tight angle was saved at the near post by Dean Kiely.

Then, another swift move involving Lazaridis and Stephen Clemence ended with Chris Perry making a timely intervention to foil Mikael Forssell for a corner.

The corner came to nought, unlike the first corner Charlton were awarded in the 11th minute that resulted in them taking the lead. Claus Jensen delivered an inswinging kick from the left and Holland leapt highest at the near post to direct his headed into the roof of the Birmingham net via Taylor's outstretched left arm.

Birmingham were clearly having problems defending corners and two more in quick succession led to the visitors doubling their lead.

A thunderous shot from Scott Parker earned the second of them; and from it Graham Stuart's shot was cleared by Christophe Dugarry but only into the body of Holland and from there past Taylor.

Dugarry went a long way towards making amends six minutes later as Birmingham also capitalised on a corner when the French striker out-jumped everyone to reduce the deficit.

It was his first goal of the season and only a superb save from Kiely prevented him from adding a second, with the Charlton keeper reacting smartly to push Dugarry's close-range header over the crossbar.

BIRMINGHAM: Taylor, Clapham, Cunningham, Upson, Tebily (Morrison 77), Lazaridis (John 89), Clemence, Cisse (Hughes 55), Dunn, Dugarry, Forssell. Subs Not Used: Bennett, Kenna. Booked: Dugarry. Goals: Dugarry 64.

CHARLTON: Kiely, Hreidarsson, Fish, Perry, Kishishev, Stuart (Fortune 83), Parker, Jensen, Holland, Euell (Lisbie 68), Johansson (Svensson 74). Subs Not Used: Powell, Royce. Booked: Parker. Goals: Holland 11, 59.

Referee: P Dowd (Staffordshire).