Birmingham City reignited their Championship campaign with a controlled 1-0 victory over Queens Park Rangers at St Andrew's, ending their three-game losing run and pushing themselves back into the fringes of the play-off race. Patrick Roberts' early finish separated the sides on the scoreboard, but the performance gap between the teams was far wider as the Blues dominated from start to finish.
The hosts created a stream of chances and finished with 21 efforts on goal, repeatedly stretching a QPR side who came into the night already badly out of form and left with a fourth straight defeat and a fourth successive game without scoring. In contrast, the visitors did not muster a single effort until well into the second half and registered only one shot on target, rarely troubling James Beadle in the Birmingham goal.
The result lifted Birmingham up to 10th place, five points adrift of the top six, underlining the progress head coach Chris Davies believes his side are making, while QPR slipped to 18th as Julien Stephan was left to reflect on a display he later described as 'very embarrassing' before the interval.
Osman torments QPR as Blues seize early control