Blackburn Rovers 2 Birmingham City 0

Many managers have suffered before from the unlucky breaks which come your way when you are down at the wrong end of the table.

And many other managers have had good cause to curse the name of Paul Dickov.

But you still couldn't help feeling sorry for Birmingham City manager Steve Bruce as his Blues side had the rug taken from under their feet.

It must have been the same magic carpet Dickov was standing on inside the Blues box when he made the graceless plummet to the ground that earned Rovers' crucial match- turning penalty.

Matthew Upson clearly had a hold of Dickov as Shefki Kuqi's flick-on arrived at his feet, just as Dickov had hold of the Blues centre-half. But, in an attempt to break free, Dickov threw himself to earth and referee Barry Knight's itchy trigger finger responded with the speed of a Wild West cowboy.

In terms of the sort of physical threat deserving of the award of a penalty, Upson and Dickov's little grapple had more in common with the potter's wheel scene from 'Ghost' between Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze.

It outraged Kenny Cunningham enough to earn the Blues captain a rare booking for dissent and, for Mr Knight to feel conned into pointing the spot makes you feel even more worried about modern- day refereeing standards.

"Some get given, some don't," said Dickov, still barely able to suppress a grin. "I thought I had a blatant penalty not given against West Brom in our last home game but these things even themselves out and it's up to the referee to make the decision.

"Whether it was or not, he's given it."

Hardly a denial, then. And Upson, by way of contrast, certainly was not grinning.

"I was trying to hold my ground," he said. "Of course, there's contact but there's no attempt to shove anyone and he throws himself down dramatically.

" That's Paul Dickov's game. Sometimes he gets away with it, some weeks he doesn't.

"He's bending the rules as much as he can and sometimes you need a referee who's aware of those sort of situations. Someone with experience and knowledge about players."

Upson was also involved in the second Blackburn goal, expertly put away by Craig Bellamy, the man who turned down Blues nine months ago.

Upson and Cunningham attacked the same ball, but Upson did not get a solid enough contact with his clearing header, leaving a gaping hole through which Morten Gamst Pedersen threaded his killer pass.

Kuqi, running clear alongside Bellamy, was offside. Bellamy might well have been but, like the honest player he is, Upson did not hide, preferring this time to point the finger at himself and his skipper rather than the referee again.

"It looked dubious," said the England defender. "But me and Kenny have got to deal with that a lot better. There was not enough communication, we both went for it, that distracted me and I did not get enough distance on the header."

The only consolation was that at least the events of the second 45 minutes gave the gentlemen of the press something to write about.

The first half was a desperate affair. So bad was it that one visiting journalist, 20 minutes late for the game due to the traffic jams on the M6, completely changed his running order for the afternoon.

Popping into the Ewood Park press room to pick up his team sheet, he realised the half-time pies had already arrived. And, having quickly worked out from the groans of the commentator on the TV that the game was not up to much, he opted to sit tight where he was and eat his pie.

Apart from Emile Heskey's very late and very clumsy challenge on Ryan Nelsen, which rightly earned a booking and could so easily have been punished more strictly, there were only two moments of any real note before the break.

A feeble attempt to intercept Kuqi's through ball by the recalled Stan Lazaridis allowed Dickov to go clear but, on this occasion, his finish was so weak that it enabled Maik Taylor to snake out a hand before Jamie Clapham completed the clearance.

Dickov then lashed over with a left-footer on the turn after Nicky Butt had been mugged by Tugay but the Scot was to make no mistake with his next effort on Taylor's goal after he had won Rovers that penalty. Dickov smashed it straight down the middle.

The Blues boss clearly has much work to do to mould his players back into a decent fighting unit.

Maybe the return of David Dunn will do it, if he can stay fit long enough but Bruce is in need of a spark from somewhere.

There was a little more life when substitutes Neil Kilnenny and Jiri Jarosik came on but there was no attacking threat down the left, Mikael Forssell is a shadow of his former self and the bullish Heskey was a long way short of deserving his manager's over- use of the word 'magnificent'.

Heskey, already booked, could so easily have walked after being sold short by Olivier Tebily which saw him catch Pedersen's trailing legs.

But he would have been as unfortunate as Jermaine Pennant was when he became Blues' third caution, the Blackburn man persuading the easily influenced Mr Knight by leaping in the air like a scalded cat.

The bottom line, though, was that it took over an hour for Blues to get their first shot on target when Brad Friedel turned aside Butt's shot on the turn.

And when Bellamy evaded the linesman's flag to run on and fire home his first Premiership goal for Blackburn, that capped Bruce's day.