Holland double sinks Birmingham

Birmingham 1 Charlton 2

Matt Holland grabbed his first two goals for Charlton to shatter Birmingham’s nine-month unbeaten home record.

The Republic of Ireland midfielder, who moved to The Valley from Ipswich in the summer, brought Steve Bruce’s side down to earth with a bump after their flying start to the campaign.

A first goal of the campaign from Christophe Dugarry was scant consolation for Blues although they retain fourth place in the Barclaycard Premiership.

Birmingham, beaten only once previously this season, had more than their fair share of possession but for long periods they huffed and puffed and made little impact in an entertaining game.

They were constantly harried and given little time to settle on the ball by a tigerish Charlton side who have now taken 13 points from their last five games.

There was more than just graft to the Addicks performance and they counter-attacked to good effect with Scott Parker impressive in midfield.

But Birmingham will be disappointed that both Holland’s goals came from set-pieces and their normally solid defence looked uncharacteristically vulnerable.

Dugarry was yellow-carded after only two minutes for an ugly-looking challenge on Charlton defender Radostin Kishishev.

Addicks goalkeeper Dean Kiely was called into action to beat out a shot from a narrow angle by David Dunn after Stan Lazaridis had laid the ball into his path following a diagonal run.

City were the first to settle but they were stunned when Charlton went ahead through Holland.

Claus Jensen’s inswinging corner picked out Holland, who gave Blues goalkeeper Maik Taylor no chance with a powerful header from six yards out.

The Blues fans became frustrated as their side were knocked out of their stride by the combative Addicks.

Kiely did well to turn a low 25-yard drive from Dunn around the post but Charlton looked a menace on the break when they poured players forward in support of the strikers.

It needed a superb close range save from Taylor to prevent Jonatan Johansson doubling Charlton’s lead after 32 minutes.

The Blues defence was static as Jensen’s raking crossfield ball fell to Johansson and he seemed certain to score from only six yards out – but Taylor managed to stick out a foot and deflect the shot wide.

Stephen Clemence and Hermann Hreidarsson needed treatment after a clash of heads as Blues finished the first half on the offensive with Kiely clinging onto a shot on the turn from Forssell.

Birmingham were out for the second period a full two minutes ahead of their opponents and Dunn tried his luck with a curling effort from 20 yards out, which was comfortably dealt with by Kiely.

Blues had another let-off when a corner from Jensen found its way to Johansson in the middle but he failed to make clean contact and Taylor was able to gather.

Taylor produced a superb save to turn aside a powerful drive from Scott Parker, but from the resulting Jensen corner Charlton doubled their lead.

The ball fell to Graham Stuart on the far side of the area and his powerful shot was cleared by Dugarry but only into the path of Holland, who bundled the ball over the line but knew little about it.

Birmingham appeared down and out but after 64 minutes Dugarry gave them a lifeline with his first goal of the season.

He had a header deflected over the bar but made no mistake with a similar effort when he connected with a Lazaridis corner.

The Blues fans finally came to life as they sensed their below-par side could earn something from the game.

It needed a brilliant save by Kiely to keep out a Dugarry header after he timed his run perfectly to meet a Hughes cross.

But Taylor had to pull off fine saves to stop substitute Kevin Lisbie on two occasions from wrapping up the points for Charlton.

Kiely denied Dunn and Forsell in a late rally by Birmingham but few would deny that Charlton were worthy of their success.