Subs Bring Blues The Points.

Birmingham City substitutes Wes Thomas and Nathan Redmond were the pair behind Blues victory over Derby County at St Andrews on Saturday.
The win has lifted City to 14th place in the table, they have not been that high since September last year, but it didn't look like a win was going to come Blues' way by how things went in the first half.

It was a pretty dull story for the first 40 minutes then the visitors managed a close range effort from Ben Davies. It gave Derby hope of picking up their first away win since December.

But City boss Lee Clark changed things around a bit by bringing on Thomas and Redmond and that move helped inspire Blues to fight back.

Birmingham had been threatening to get back into the game and Callum Reilly, on loan from Bournemouth, went close to finding the net when he gave the crossbar a rattle with a shot from 25 yards.

But then Thomas turned well and struck the ball sweetly into the net from 18 yards to level the score on 67 minutes.

Minutes later and Derby keeper Legzdins was picking the ball out of he net for a second time when Redmond found himself some shooting space some 25 yards out and fired a left footed effort into the bottom corner of the net and City were 2-1 up.

Derby tried to get themselves back into the game when Jake Buxton got an effort on goal but Jack Butland was there to stop the visitors' hopes.

Then Derby appealed in hope for a penalty but the referee saw nothing but a collision between Butland and Sammon.

As the game drew to an end, City made it 3-1 when Thomas grabbed his second goal of the game from 12 yards and that made sure of the three points.


Blues: Butland, Caddis, Robinson, Davies, Ferguson, Burke (Redmond 46), Spector, Reilly (Morrison 62), Elliott, Lovenkrands (Thomas 46), Zigic.

Subs Not Used: Doyle, Caldwell, Mullins, Fahey.

Derby: Legzdins, Gjokaj, Buxton, Keogh, Roberts, Davies (Jacobs 81), Coutts, Hendrick, Forsyth, Martin, Sammon.

Subs Not Used: Fielding, Doyle, O'Brien, Bennett, Hoganson, Freeman.

Attendance: 15,850

Referee: Simon Hooper (Wiltshire).

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