Birmingham City's dominant first-half performance earned them a 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace to claim all three points at St Andrew's this afternoon.
The home side made the pressure count with 22 minutes gone when Chris Burke curled in a effort from the right side of the area to make it 1-0.
The Blues continued to come forward and grabbed a second a minute later. This time it was Keith Fahey, who smashed his shot into the top corner from 20 yards out.
Palace struggled to deal with the pace of Birmingham's play and, on 32 minutes, the home side scored a third. David Murphy latched onto Andros Townsend's through ball and drilled it into the bottom corner.
Just before half time, despite being out-played throughout the first half, the away side pulled a goal back through Owen Garvan. The midfielder drilled a low shot home from distance.
The half time whistle went with the score at 3-1.
The away side has the first real chance of the second half when Stuart O'Keefe's shot from 25 yards forced a great save from Boaz Myhill.
Birmingham came close to making it 4-1 when Jordon Mutch's well-struck free kick was flicked onto the bar by Julian Speroni and left the Blues with a 3-1 victory.
Sam Hughes
