Birmingham City produced another devastating attacking display at St Andrew's, sweeping aside high-flying Millwall 4-0 to register back-to-back home wins by the same scoreline. Goals from Paik Seung-ho, Demarai Gray, Alex Cochrane and Jay Stansfield underlined the growing confidence within Chris Davies' side and ended the visitors' impressive unbeaten record on the road this season.
The result made it three victories in four league matches for Birmingham, who climbed to ninth in the Championship table, just a point outside the play-off places. Millwall, who arrived in the Midlands on the back of an excellent away run that had taken them into fourth, suffered only their fourth league defeat of the campaign and mustered just two shots on target on a wet night when the hosts' intensity and quality in the final third proved decisive.
Even start in the rain before Paik breaks through
Both sides traded blows in the opening stages, adjusting to the slick surface as heavy rain made for testing conditions. Millwall almost capitalised first when Luke Cundle met a dropping ball on the edge of the area with a thumping right-footed volley, drawing an excellent save from James Beadle as the Birmingham goalkeeper sprang to his right to palm it away.