Bristol City 0 Birmingham 2

Two goals by Chris Burke secured a fifth straight win for Blues as they beat Bristol 2-0 at Ashton Gate.

The former Cardiff winger opened the scoring nine minutes before the break.

And Burke rubber-stamped the victory four minutes into stoppage time, albeit from what appeared to be an off-side position.

The win leaves Blues just four points off the playoff places with three games in hand.

Hughton made seven changes from the side that started in Thursday's heroic Europa League victory over Bruges.

In defence Stephen Carr, Liam Ridgwell and Curtis Davies were all drafted in, in place of David Murphy, Jonathan Spector and Pablo Ibanez.

Jean Beausejour and Morgaro Gomis were also preferred in the centre of midfield to Guirane N'Daw and Wade Elliott.

Up front, Hughton kept faith with the pairing who finished the game in Belgium, picking Marlon King and match-winner Chris Wood ahead of Adam Rooney and Nikola Zigic.

Blues settled quickly against the Somerset strugglers and they had already missed several chances when Burke headed home from Jean Beausejour's cross.

It was well deserved after a dominant first-half performance and the opening minutes of the second-half suggested more of the same as Blues controlled the early going.

But slack passing and losses of concentration allowed Bristol back into the game.

Carr and goalkeeper Boaz Myhill almost gifted Jamal Campbell-Ryce a comical equaliser when they both left a bouncing ball.

But the striker could only fire wide from a tight angle, sparing both players' blushes.

Nicky Maynard and Carr were both shown yellow cards for unsporting challenges on Davies and Campbell-Ryce respectively within three minutes of each other.

Campbell-Ryce was replaced by Kalifa Cisse with 27 minutes left in a bid to rescue at least a point for the home side. #

Hughton also made changes for the final 16 minutes to preserve Blues' slender lead.

Zigic replaced Wood while King was replaced by Murphy as Blues switched to a 4-5-1 formation for the final minutes.

Zigic should have put the result beyond doubt with five minutes left but he could only head a gilt-edged chance straight at goalkeeper David James.

At the other end, Albert Adomah flashed a shot wide of goal in the final minute of normal time.

And the same player forced a diving full-stretch save from the Welshman two minutes into stoppage time.

But Burke beat the offside trap two minutes later to wrap up a fifth straight win.