Cardiff 1 Blues 2 - analysis

Birmingham's goalscoring problems were solved by Quincy as the Blues kept up the Championship pressure on Wolves with a win in Wales.

Blues came away from Cardiff with victory thanks to Owusu-Abeyie, who scored one and laid on another for James McFadden.

It was the perfect response to last weekend's Blackpool blues and more evidence that the former Arsenal man can be a big signing for Alex McLeish, after joining on loan from Spartak Moscow.

The Blues boss said: "I was pleased with him, especially in the first half. We lost him a bit in the second half. He had a good opportunity when he broke through the middle and he could have played Cameron in, but the final ball can sometimes let us down.

"Not just Quincy but one or two of the players can improve on that. We have worked hard on him this week to try and get him on the ball. He is explosive.

"He is like a sprinter and there is only so many times he can sprint past people in a game before he gets tired, because it is explosive work.

"While he is on the pitch we want to get the best out of him. Against Cardiff he was very good.

"He has a decent pedigree from his Arsenal days and being at Ajax as a kid. I do believe there is more to come from him.

"We played more to his strengths and I think I have possibly been asking him to defend too much. He isn't the best tackler but we can get him in positions where if we counter attack he can be deadly."

Blues: Taylor, Murphy, Ridgewell, Jaidi, Parnaby, Larsson, Agustien, Owusu-Abeyie (Phillips 90), Carsley, Jerome (O'Connor 84), McFadden (Bent 75).

Subs: Doyle, Martin Taylor.

Attendance: 18,304.