Sport

Jerome brace sees Birmingham sixth in table

Birmingham 2 Blackburn Rovers 1: BIRMINGHAM CITY supporters can be forgiven for rubbing their eyes when they wake up this morning…

STUART JAMES at St Andrew's
Wed Dec 16 2009 - 00:00

Birmingham 2 Blackburn Rovers 1:BIRMINGHAM CITY supporters can be forgiven for rubbing their eyes when they wake up this morning and glance at the league table. A season that was supposed to be about survival has turned into a European assault.

Five straight Premier League victories have propelled Birmingham above Liverpool and Manchester City and into the top six. Maybe Carson Yeung knew what he was doing when he spent €90 million on Birmingham City after all.

These are giddy days at St Andrew’s. The melancholic mood that enveloped the stadium for so long has been lifted and replaced with one of optimism following eight games without defeat. An incredible 20 out of a possible 24 points have been gleaned during that sequence, with Cameron Jerome’s second and third goals of the season ensuring that the run continued here..

They certainly could not have wished for a better start, Jerome’s second goal of the season and his first at home providing a deserved interval lead. Blackburn had been slow to react to a short corner and when Sebastian Larsson floated the ball towards the six-yard box it flicked off two Birmingham players before Jerome, stationed almost on the goal line, turned it home.

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The second goal Birmingham craved to provide some breathing space arrived within just three minutes of the restart. Larsson was involved again, releasing the increasingly impressive Stephen Carr down the right flank with an adroit flick that exposed Gael Givet. Carr pulled the ball back for Jerome, whose first-time shot, from about 12 yards, fizzed inside Robinson’s near post.

Blackburn looked ragged yet pilfered a goal back. A rare lapse of concentration in the Birmingham rearguard allowed Chimbonda to shoot goalbound. Joe Hart managed to get his left hand to the ball but succeeded only in pushing it towards Ryan Nelsen who registered Blackburn’s first league goal in 445 minutes.

BIRMINGHAM: Hart, Carr, Roger Johnson, Dann, Ridgewell, Larsson, Ferguson, Bowyer, McFadden (Fahey 82), Jerome, Benitez. Subs Not Used: Maik Taylor, Vignal, McSheffrey, O’Shea, Carsley, Phillips. Booked: Jerome, Ferguson. Goals: Jerome 12, 48.

BLACKBURN: Robinson, Chimbonda, Samba, Nelsen, Givet, Diouf (Hoilett 53), Emerton (Andrews 22), Nzonzi, Pedersen, Roberts (McCarthy 71), Kalinic. Subs Not Used: Brown, Salgado, Jacobsen, Di Santo. Booked: Nzonzi, Nelsen. Goals: Nelsen 69. Att: 23,187.

Referee: M Jones (Cheshire).