Heskey stars as Blues beat Baggies

West Brom 2 Birmingham 3

Emile Heskey’s two-goal blast earned Birmingham their first win of the Premiership season as they survived a stirring second-half fightback by Bryan Robson’s side.

The England striker had missed the two home defeats against Manchester City and Middlesbrough with a hip problem but two trademark headers brought a smile back to the face of manager Steve Bruce.

Heskey scored a fine header from Jamie Clapham's cross to put Blues ahead but Geoff Horsfield cancelled out the opener with his third goal in his last two games.

Then Jiri Jarosik restored Birmingham’s lead before Heskey took advantage of slack defending for his second.

Geoff Horsfield pounced on some poor Birmingham defending to score against his club but despite further pressure from the Baggies they could not grab and equaliser.

Birmingham boss Bruce will be relieved to end a run of one point out of a possible nine although his side were hanging on at the final whistle.