Birmingham 0 Fulham 2

A brace from Brede Hangeland left Birmingham's Premier League survival hopes hanging a thread.

The towering Norwegian opened the scoring within six minutes with a trademark header and then doubled the visitor's lead five minutes into the second half.

But both goals owed a lot to some abysmal defending as Blues reserved arguably their worst performance of the season for their final home game of the season.

The defeat sets up a nerve-shredding final day of the season, with Alex McLeish's side needing to beat high-flyers Tottenham to ensure top-flight survival.

And the manager's selection options for Blues were restricted for the vital game, due to injury and suspension.

Regular starters Liam Ridgewell and Craig Gardner were for unavailable, with both players serving suspensions for red cards against Newcastle and Wolves respectively.

In defence Stuart Parnaby got the nod in Ridgwell's place, at left back, while in midfield David Bentley got the call on the left wing.

Up front Kevin Phillips made his 500 career league appearance alongside surprise inclusion Matt Derbyshire, making just his ninth start of the season.

It was a rarely-used striking partnership but McLeish's hand was forced by injuries to Cameron Jerome, Nikola Zigic and Obafemi Martins.

The visitors also included some familiar faces for Blues fans with former St Andrew's favourite Andrew Johnson starting up front, ex-Albion midfielder Jonathan Greening lining up on the left wing and former Villa defender Steve Sidwell included in the back four.

Former Blues defender Stephen Kelly and ex-Albion talisman Zoltan Gera were among the Fulham substitutes.

Before kick-off fans were entertained by a performance from the Royal Marines Brass Band, from Plymouth.

Both sides continued the military theme from the kick-off, with Fulham coming out all guns blazing and Blues appearing shell-shocked.

Barry Ferguson gave away a dangerous free-kick for a foul on Greening inside the first minute.

Danny Murphy then quickly released Johnson down the left from the re-start and Clint Dempsey somehow fired his cut back over the bar from just six yards out.

Fulham came even closer a minute later when Roger Johnson and Martin Jiranek allowed goalkeeper Mark Schwazer's long punt up-field to bounce in the box.

The bounce caught out Foster, who could only claw the ball wide of goal as it sailed calamitously over his head.

But Fulham finally punished Blues' appallingly lax start from the resultant corner, when Hangeland headed home from Greening's flag kick inside the six-yard box.

Blues continued to stutter as Fulham poured forward and Stephen Carr was soon forced into a near-goal line clearance, before Dempsey scooped a decent chance wide from the edge of the box.

At the other end, Bentley fired a speculative effort comfortably wide from long range before Johnson missed a great chance for Fulham, nodding Greening's left wing cross wide from less than five yards out.

The visitors then almost caught their stunned hosts out on the counter attack, after Sidwell dispossessed Ferguson just outside the Fulham box.

The midfielder then ran the length of the pitch but could only fire straight at Foster from the edge of the penalty area.

With 25 minutes gone, the modest visiting support were the only ones creating any real noise, as Blues failed to retain any decent possession or create decent chances.

Chants of "you're going to Coventry" from the travelling section summed up the gravity of Blues' predicament and Bobby Zamora should have made it 2-0 to the visitors, but struck the post from Greening's deep right wing free-kick 30th minutes in.

But Jiranek offered a glimmer of hope three minutes later, chesting Parnaby's cross against Schwarzer's left-hand post.

Phillips then came close to marking his latest appearance milestone when his goal-bound header was deflected wide by Philippe Senderos, from Sebastian Larsson's right-wing cross.

But it did not stop them being booed off by their own fans at half time though and with some justification, after a nerve-filled and thoroughly unconvincing display.

Unfortunately, Blues started the second just as poorly as they had the first, with Zamora heading straight at Foster from an unmarked position and then chipping the ball into the goalkeeper's arms after going one-on-one a minute later.

Sidwell then struck the post from inside the area and Hangeland doubled the visitors lead from the resulting corner, after Blues had failed to clear the initial cross.

Both sides then made changes, with McLeish replacing Lee Bowyer with Alexander Hleb and Mark Hughes swapping Zamora for Eidur Gudjohnsen.

Gudjohnsen then forced a solid save from Foster with virtually his first touch, before Sidwell blazed over the bar.

Parnaby had to be replaced on 56 minutes after picking up an injury following a tumble in the box, with Jean Beausejour taking up the left-back position.

Still Fulham pressed forward, with Dempsey firing at Foster after Sidwell had dispossessed Hleb inside the final third.

Johnson picked up the game's first yellow cardfor Fulham just before the hour mark and the forward was denied by Foster two minutes later, when the goalkeeper charged down his attempted shot inside the box.

Danny Murphy then went into the referee's book for a rash challenge on Bentley, before Curtis Davies replaced Martin Jiranek with 23 minutes remaining.

Dickson Etuhu also came on for Murphy with 20 minutes left, as Blues struggled to create any note-worthy chances.

Things went from very bad to even worse when Blues were reduced to 10 men, as Hleb had to go off injured following a tackle by Gudjohnse, with Blues having already used up all three of their substitutes.

Unsurprisingly, Fulham saw out the remaining minutes for an all-too-comfortable win.