Fulham

Birmingham continued to enjoy the mini-purple patch that has followed the resolution of Carson Yeung's interminable boardroom takeover, beating Fulham by the only goal of a messy match played in relentless rain. Alex McLeish's team are now unbeaten in four league games, equalling their best run in the top tier during his time in charge.

The only goal arrived after 16 minutes, created by a sublime pass from James McFadden. He cut in from the left and looked up to find the untracked run of Lee Bowyer, who expertly dinked the ball past the advancing Mark Schwarzer.

McLeish described the finish as "world class" and paid tribute to a player who has found a second wind at St Andrew's. "When Lee first came there were people who raised their eyebrows," he said. "They said his legs have gone, they said he's not the same player. But I think he's proved a lot of people wrong."

Bowyer's goal was also the only moment of genuine attacking invention in a match that started off frenetically and never settled down. "A very good performance by the team but a bad result," was Roy Hodgson's verdict, although he acknowledged his team had struggled to create chances. "Most of it was us creating very dangerous situations around the box and Birmingham being able to deal with them."

The game's decisive moment was reward for a positive start by the home team, during which they found space on the Fulham right, where Simon Davies was back after injury and Stephen Kelly came in at right-back for John Pantsil.

In attack, Fulham too often sought the hulking Bobby Zamora with a series of punts. Just before half-time Brede Hangeland headed over from Davies's corner, but otherwise Fulham kept the ball neatly yet struggled against a hard-working midfield on a lush relaid pitch that coped very well with the unrelenting downpour.

The visitors did look the more vigorous team after half-time. Jonathan Greening and Chris Baird began to shade the central midfield tussle with Bowyer and Barry Ferguson, but for all their effort Fulham looked blunt in attack against a physically imposing home defence. On the hour Paul Konchesky's deep cross from the left was headed down by Zamora, but Zoltan Gera could only pummel his attempted scissor-kick into the turf.

On 69 minutes they had their best chance of the match, Kelly delivering a left-footed cross that Clint Dempsey headed towards goal. Joe Hart leapt well to palm the ball away.

With just over 10 minutes to go Hodgson sent on Damien Duff, who had returned "distraught", according to his manager, after playing all 120 minutes of Ireland's midweek World Cup play-off. He was immediately involved, creating space for a cross that skimmed Zamora's head.

But in the end, for all Fulham's diligent pressing, Birmingham were able to hold on without any great discomfort as the visitors' own bright run of five matches without defeat came to a soggy end.

This is not a news report and may contain views expressed by the author which are not supported by GNM.

Birmingham continued to enjoy the mini-purple patch that has followed the resolution of Carson Yeung's interminable boardroom takeover, beating Fulham by the only goal of a messy match played in relentless rain. Alex McLeish's team are now unbeaten in four league games, equalling their best run in the top tier during his time in charge.

The only goal arrived after 16 minutes, created by a sublime pass from James McFadden. He cut in from the left and looked up to find the untracked run of Lee Bowyer, who expertly dinked the ball past the advancing Mark Schwarzer.

McLeish described the finish as "world class" and paid tribute to a player who has found a second wind at St Andrew's. "When Lee first came there were people who raised their eyebrows," he said. "They said his legs have gone, they said he's not the same player. But I think he's proved a lot of people wrong."

Bowyer's goal was also the only moment of genuine attacking invention in a match that started off frenetically and never settled down. "A very good performance by the team but a bad result," was Roy Hodgson's verdict, although he acknowledged his team had struggled to create chances. "Most of it was us creating very dangerous situations around the box and Birmingham being able to deal with them."

The game's decisive moment was reward for a positive start by the home team, during which they found space on the Fulham right, where Simon Davies was back after injury and Stephen Kelly came in at right-back for John Pantsil.

In attack, Fulham too often sought the hulking Bobby Zamora with a series of punts. Just before half-time Brede Hangeland headed over from Davies's corner, but otherwise Fulham kept the ball neatly yet struggled against a hard-working midfield on a lush relaid pitch that coped very well with the unrelenting downpour.

The visitors did look the more vigorous team after half-time. Jonathan Greening and Chris Baird began to shade the central midfield tussle with Bowyer and Barry Ferguson, but for all their effort Fulham looked blunt in attack against a physically imposing home defence. On the hour Paul Konchesky's deep cross from the left was headed down by Zamora, but Zoltan Gera could only pummel his attempted scissor-kick into the turf.

On 69 minutes they had their best chance of the match, Kelly delivering a left-footed cross that Clint Dempsey headed towards goal. Joe Hart leapt well to palm the ball away.

With just over 10 minutes to go Hodgson sent on Damien Duff, who had returned "distraught", according to his manager, after playing all 120 minutes of Ireland's midweek World Cup play-off. He was immediately involved, creating space for a cross that skimmed Zamora's head.

But in the end, for all Fulham's diligent pressing, Birmingham were able to hold on without any great discomfort as the visitors' own bright run of five matches without defeat came to a soggy end.

This is not a news report and may contain views expressed by the author which are not supported by GNM.