West Brom 2 Birmingham 0: Birmingham manager Steve Bruce branded his side's performance as "unacceptable" as goals from Neil Clement and Kevin Campbell gave West Brom a relegation lifeline at The Hawthorns.

The home side gained only their third victory of their Premiership campaign yesterday, to close the gap on fourth-from-bottom Crystal Palace to five points - and West Brom have a match a hand.

It was sweet revenge for the 4-0 drubbing handed out by Blues at St Andrews in December when Albion fans chanted "You don't know what you're doing"' towards Albion manager Bryan Robson.

Bruce read the riot act to his players in the dressing-room after a fifth successive away league defeat left them looking over their shoulders at the bottom part of the table. "There are no excuses," Bruce said after the game. "West Brom deserved to win it. They wanted it more than us from the first minute to the 90th. They were the better team. I don't think in my three and a half years here that I've ever publicly criticised the players, but I won't accept a performance like I've seen today, a derby game, or in the second half last week against Crystal Palace. It was simply not good enough and that has been told to them in no uncertain manner."

Victory moved West Brom off the bottom of the table for the first time since the end of November. "It was pleasing for the players because it is obviously difficult for them to keep going when they have been playing really well and haven't been getting too many breaks and not winning games," Robson said. "It's a nice boost to be off the bottom of the table. We are pleased about that."

Clement broke the deadlock early in the second half when he rose above Salif Diao to head home a Kieran Richardson corner. Then Campbell made sure of the points when he volleyed home a cross from Jonathan Greening.