Bruce in for Burnley’s Blake as Blues heap more woe on Fulham

Fulham 2 Birmingham 3

After watching his side coast to a fourth straight win by beating struggling Fulham, Bruce admitted he had spoken to the Championship side about the highly-rated player.

Bruce revealed: “We have made an enquiry. A conversation has been taking place with my owners and the chairman and respective owners of Burnley. I have spoken to the Burnley manager about the player. We lodged a bid yesterday and we are waiting to hear back from Burnley.”

Bruce was delighted with his team’s performance after they had put Chris Coleman’s poor Fulham side to the sword. Victories over Villa, West Brom, Middlesbrough and Fulham have now pushed Bruce’s side into ninth place in the Premiership.

Their fourth straight win is a record for the club in the Premiership and Bruce paid a warm tribute to England striker Emile Heskey and strike partner Clinton Morrison. Heskey’s goal in the 25th minute put City on the road to success.

Bruce said: “I have always said you are only as good as your strikers. Emile has been playing up on his own at times. But I think you could see why today that I keep saying that of his type - a typical English centre-forward - there is no-one better.

“Emile and Clinton have given us that edge. They like playing alongside each other. Clinton has given us a spark as well.

“Four wins in a row has certainly made my job easier but the win against Villa gave everybody at the club a real lift and that was what we needed.”

Fulham manager Chris Coleman refused to speak to the media after their sixth defeat in eight games. The Londoners are now fifth from bottom and Coleman’s assistant Steve Kean admitted that they were in trouble.

Fulham were booed off the pitch at half-time and again at full-time, with some of the fans calling for Coleman to go. But Kean said they were entitled to vent their opinions and insisted the players were just as disappointed as the watching Fulham faithful.

Kean said: “I can understand the frustration of the fans. If they want to vent it by booing that’s echoed by the frustration of the staff and also by the players themselves. They are in the dressing room very disappointed with themselves individually and certainly collectively.

“The games coming up now are massive and the table speaks for itself. If they were not massive before today’s game, they certainly are now.

“We started the game particularly well and had Birmingham on the back foot but then we just seemed to lose confidence on the ball. One bad pass and we stopped making angles for each other.”

Kean admitted it was now crucial they strengthened the squad when the transfer window opens next month as well as hanging on to the players they have already got.

Kean added: “We are hoping to keep everyone together and strengthen in certain areas. That is going to be important because there’s been a few injured players we expected to have back by now.”

After Heskey’s opener Sylvain Legwinski equalised eight minutes later. However, five minutes before the break, Darren Carter restored City’s advantage to spark a furious volley of abuse at Coleman and his players as they left the pitch at the break.

Robbie Savage added the decisive third goal for Steve Bruce’s impressive side in the 52nd minute before Radzinski scored a late consolation effort in the closing stages.

FULHAM: Van der Sar, Volz, Knight, Pearce (Rehman 45), Bocanegra, John (Hammond 57), Legwinski, Diop, Radzinski, Cole, McBride (Malbranque 56).

BIRMINGHAM: Maik Taylor, Tebily, Cunningham, Upson, Melchiot, Johnson, Carter, Savage (Anderton 86), Clapham, Heskey (Gray 75), Morrison (Clemence 82).

Referee: M Clattenburg (Co Durham).