Birmingham City 2 Crystal Palace 1

It is almost five years since, as manager of Crystal Palace, Steve Bruce was last in charge of a team on top of the league.

His only lasting regret about repeating the achievement with Birmingham City on Saturday was the knowledge that, thanks to the distracting efforts of his captain Damien Johnson, it may be a few days yet before the Blues manager gets around to enjoying the feeling.

In fact, Bruce will not truly be happy about topping this term's Championship table until Blues are ten points clear with three games left come April. For, that is surely where they are headed.

Make no mistake, Johnson's ridiculous exit was another major embarrassment for Blues. In terms of 'leading by example', this was almost as bad as it gets.

Having realised he was being substituted, and goaded by a few comments from the crowd, he tossed his armband away. Then, as the jeers (or was it simply cheers for his replacement Mikael Forssell) got louder, off came the shirt. Finally, having jogged down the touchline, Johnson's last act before disappearing down the tunnel was to hurl the shirt behind him on the pitch.

Passionate? Yes. Inspiring? Arguably. Responsible? No. Acceptable? No. And Bruce will be encouraged by many to choose another player to lead his team for tomorrow night's Coca-Cola Cup tie with Shrewsbury Town.

Not only did his chosen captain suffer the indignity of being withdrawn, his team went on to win the game without him.

Worse still for Johnson, it was Forssell whose neat pass created the time and space for David Dunn to brilliantly set up Sebastian Larsson's injury-time winner. That was the happy outcome this match may ultimately be better remembered for.

Questions will remain over Johnson, both over his captaincy and his place in the team. His substitution was one that the vast majority of fans were in accord with but big-spending Blues' second injury-time home victory in a fortnight says everything about their promotion credentials.

And, on a day when Aston Villa were spoiling Arsenal's opening-day party, the reverberations could be felt in north London on two counts.

Not only was it a reminder that there are still two teams in Birmingham, but the scorers of the Blues goals, Niklas Bendtner and Larsson, offered a reminder to Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger of their abilities.

Bruce's former club Palace had arrived at St Andrew's with the Championship's only 100 per cent record and they looked briefly on course for a fourth win when, prompted by former Wolverhampton Wanderers midfielder Mark Kennedy, they went in front when Jobi McAnuff's shot deflected in off Radhi Jaidi.

But, after Jaidi had almost made amends at the other end, being denied by a great one-hand save from Gabor Kiraly, the impressive Mehdi Nafti threaded in Bendtner, who coolly slotted in from ten yards to equalise.

From then on, Blues looked more likely to win it. Debutant Gary McSheffrey, lively throughout, was denied when Kiraly stuck out a hand to stop his shot before grabbing it at the second attempt as DJ Campbell homed in.

Nafti had a long-range effort whistle just wide, while Campbell was denied in a scramble at the start of the second half, and Bendtner twice more went close. With Dunn starting to become a hearteningly key figure, McSheffrey had two more chances, mishitting the first and wanting too long on the second.

Palace had their chances too, most notably when Jaidi's miscue forced goalkeeper Maik Taylor into a save and when Kennedy's left foot flashed inches wide.

But, thanks to two Arsenal loan players, and to Bruce's benchside bravery in knowing how and when to reshuffle his pack, Blues won it.

Given the enmity that exists between these two clubs, it was hardly a surprise that this game should make headlines for something other than football.

After all, the last time Bruce was manager of a table-topping team was as Palace boss, when they toppled Wolves at Molineux back in October 2001.

He was already, by then, the only name on a shortlist to replace Trevor Francis, sacked five days before. His reign as Palace boss was to last only slightly longer than their week at the top.

That is now all history and the respective boardrooms managed to get through the afternoon without any more cross words, as did Bruce, who even exchanged a warm hug with Clinton Morrison.

After Johnson's behaviour, it was almost an afterthought when it became clear that this result, coupled with others, had taken Bruce's team to No 1. Surely this side look good enough to stay there.