Morrison seals it for Brummies

Birmingham 2 Liverpool 1

Goals from Stephen Clemence and Clinton Morrison put Blues on their way to their first win in 10 matches before a late effort from Michael Owen set up a nerve-jangling finale.

Liverpool can point with some justification to having two worthwhile penalty claims turned down by referee Clive Wilkes one in each half.

However, for long periods, they were outfought by the home side who hustled them out of their stride and played as if their lives depended on the outcome.

Robbie Savage covered every blade of grass on the St Andrews pitch and typified Blues' approach, but there was more than just sheer commitment from Steve Bruce's side.

The classy Christophe Dugarry and Morrison gelled well in attack while Stan Lazaridis was a handful down the left flank.

For Liverpool one crumb of comfort will be the end of substitute Owen's goal drought with only his second in the Premiership since the start of November.

In terms of qualifying for the Champions League they now have a mountain to climb, if they are to claim fourth spot ahead of Chelsea.

Birmingham manager Steve Bruce believes two more wins could be enough to guarantee his club's Premiership status for another season

This success pushed them six points clear of the bottom three and it was the perfect tonic ahead of their Second City derby with Aston Villa in eight days' time.

"It was the draw against Liverpool earlier in the season that gave us belief that we could do okay in this division and the same hopefully will now happen again with this three points," said Bruce. "It's not easy when you have to play Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool in successive home games, but we deserved to beat Liverpool. It was no fluke and hopefully that was the little kick-start we needed to get back into winning ways.

"It's a possibility that two more wins may be enough and, if we got three it would mean the teams below us having to win five or six out of their last 10 games to overtake us.

"The situation is in our own hands and it's a nice way for me to celebrate my 20th wedding anniversary."

Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier had no complaints about the outcome, although he felt his side had two clear-cut penalty decisions rejected by referee Clive Wilkes.

"Maybe the officials were not brave enough," he said, "but I am not making excuses and what happened summed up a lot of our season. We created chances and didn't put them away and, if you don't score, there is the chance you will expose yourself.

"I thought the turning point was the second goal and we were up against a team fighting for their lives, but I wouldn't say our fight and commitment was below par.

"I'm just frustrated we have not played as well as we could have done. We had a hard game in Europe on Thursday, but again I am not saying that as an excuse."

BIRMINGHAM: Vaesen, Kenna, Cunningham, Upson, Clapham, Savage, Clemence (Carter 79), Lazaridis, Morrison (Devlin 88), Dugarry (Horsfield 81), Damien Johnson.

LIVERPOOL: Dudek, Carragher (Owen 63), Hyypia, Traore, Hamann, Cheyrou (Mellor 84), Riise, Murphy, Baros, Heskey, Diao.

Referee: C Wilkes (Gloucestershire).