Albion profligacy spares Blues

If Steve Bruce forces his team to endure a video nasty of this performance at their Wast Hills training base today then a few players will be squirming uncomfortably in their chairs.

To call it Keystone Kops defending would be a disservice to the hapless policemen of the early 20th century, as they were defence was shredded by Albion.

Bear in mind this is an Albion side who had only scored five goals on their travels all season prior to this fixture.

* More on Blues vs Albion... Davies rues penalty decision : Forsell - 'fans must keep believing' : 'Inept finishing... shambolic defending' : Greening points to Gold's taunts as inspiration : Lazaridis scotches lessening of spirit : Where both did their best to fail - and succeeded *

Yet, when Phil Dowd blew his whistle to end proceedings, they could have quite conceivably matched their seasonal tally in one fell swoop.

Their incisive passing, albeit aided by incoherent defending, left Birmingham chasing shadows and garnered three fantastic opportunities.

All three were spurned, but Albion did manage to score and waste at least two more presentable opportunities to win this nervous local derby.

Contrast this with Birmingham's goal, a penalty from Mikael Forssell and all Steve Bruce's side had to offer was a sweet drive that flew past Tomasz Kuszczak's post.

A cacophony of jeers echoed around St Andrew's with five minutes remaining after another cross was easily claimed by Kuszczak.

In fact, it was the hosts who were hanging on by their fingernails and the boos continued and increased in volume as they trudged off to a roasting from Bruce.

Their prosaic passing from midfield allied to functional route-one stuff from Maik Taylor caused Albion limited problems.

Emile Heskey won an abundance of aerial challenges, but they weren't in threatening positions as Albion held a high line.

There were glimpses, albeit briefly from Dunn and Stan Lazaridis that Blues could conjure up an opportunity worthy of the name, but it was dismal fare as a season of playing catch-up finally took its toll.

Despite being outmanoeuvred for the majority of this fixture Birmingham had the temerity to take the lead when Forssell slammed home his second goal of a troubled

campaign from the penalty spot after Davies had hauled him down four minutes after the break.

Davies argued that he had touched the ball, but it was a foolhardy tackle and left Dowd with little alternative but to point to the post.

Yet errors from Martin Taylor and Martin Latka within the space of two seconds were compounded by Mario Melchiot's agricultural heave.

But it ballooned into orbit and was coolly dealt with by Kanu on its return to earth and he set up Ellington for a delicious strike into the bottom corner of Maik Taylor's net.

That was the very least Albion deserved after a concise passing move enabled Jonathan Greening to burst pass the cumbersome Latka and free Diomansy Kamara three yards from goal.

But the Senegalese international ensured he will be viewed for years to come on various 'blooper' DVD's by slicing horribly wide.

Kevin Campbell nearly surpassed that five minutes before the end of the first half when he was granted the freedom of the penalty area by Birmingham's AWOL centre-halves.

He hit the post from barely six yards out and saw Martin Taylor scramble Jan Kozak's rebound off the line.

In boxing parlance, this bout would have been stopped on points until punch-drunk Birmingham sucker-punched Albion into conceding a penalty.

Yet credit to Robson as Bruce shut up shop, with some justification, to protect their undeserved point.

He gambled and introduced Kanu and Ellington into the fray and it paid rich dividends.

The duo combined to enable Ellington to pouch his first Premiership goal in 15 games and it could have been even better had he hot struck the crossbar in stoppage time to debunk the myth that fortune hasn't smiled on Birmingham this season.

The only plus point that Bruce will take from this encounter is that Birmingham can still climb above their nearest rivals if they win their game in hand.

Albion should have been out of sight after this performance and it proves how both sides have changed since Birmingham beat Albion 4-0 in one of Robson's early fixtures in charge in December 2004.

On that occasion Albion supporters chanted 'You don't know what you're doing' but there was no danger of any repetition as they unveiled arguably their most polished away Premiership performance yet.

A saturated midfield with Campbell operating as the lone striker seems to be a combination that suits Albion and is sure to be adopted for next week's visit of Manchester United.

Birmingham will approach their fixture against Tottenham in a different frame of mind with supporters under-standably disgruntled after this a 1-1 mauling.

Yet, seven days is a long time and if Matthew Upson returns along with Jiri Jarosik then Birmingham will be a better team, while Martin Jol's aristocrats have proved that they can be brittle on their travels.

However, there have been too many ifs and buts in this season already and they are entrenched in the bottom three for a reason.

Scoring is a major problem and with a lack of creativity from midfield allied to a lack of incisive movement up front, then it is hard to see how this problem can be rectified.

The biggest single problem for Bruce to address is the leaky back line as they are going to have to win by a the solitary goal on at least three more occasions this term to ensure Premiership survival.

Albion also need to cut out crass errors in defence and the return of Steve Watson should go a long way to helping their cause.

He might be short in stature for a centre half but he leaps imperiously and reads the game exceptionally well.

If he can ensure all around him remain vigilant and Ellington embarks on another hot streak of three or four goals then Albion could be safe.

However, at the risk of repeating myself, there have been too many ifs and buts this season and they are entrenched in the bottom four for a reason.

The pendulum swung back in Albion's favour on the back of this performance.

Yet, it wasn't decisive as a host of missed opportunities handed Birmingham a lifeline.

But with Portsmouth beating Manchester City, let's hope that they don't sneak up on the rails to deliver the worst-case scenario.