Birmingham 2 Forest 0 - analysis

Young has been likened to Messi by manager Martin O'Neill and this weekend it was the turn of Blues boss Alex McLeish to compare Fahey's strike in this St Andrew's success to the sort scored by the Barcelona star.

Fahey made sure of the points with City's second, when he picked up the ball on the left and drove into the area before delightfully chipping over stranded Forest keeper Paul Smith, securing Blues' first home win over the Reds since 1981.

More importantly, the victory, which comes during the week marking the 30th anniversary of Trevor Francis' £1million move to Forest, saw Blues take advantage of Reading's weekend off to climb back into second in the Championship.

They are now within touching distance of leaders Wolves, three points adrift of Mick McCarthy's men with a game in hand. Not that McLeish is getting carried away.

He said: "Results make a difference. If we don't get the result I'm a dud and if we do get the result then you're a great manager, you know the fickleness of the game.

"That's why we have to keep our sanity about the whole thing. I know we've stuttered a little bit but we have shown a toughness.

"I thought this was a very good, above-average performance."

Blues, who were on the back of a stuttering run of just one victory from their last six league games, overcame a nervy opening to dominate but Nathan Tyson could have given the visitors an early lead when he broke clear.

The hosts were dealt a blow when Kevin Phillips limped off with a hamstring problem on the half-hour mark.

But they found their rhythm in the second half and Marcus Bent, who had earlier seen his header bounce off the crossbar, put them ahead in the 62nd minute.

The ball fell nicely in the area following a tussle with Kelvin Wilson and he turned to prod the ball under Smith. Then Fahey wrapped things up with his first goal for the club 15 minutes from time with a sublime chip, although he later admitted it was intended as a cross.

McLeish said: "I was really pleased for Marcus to come in and do what he did. He led the line brilliantly and it was much more like the Bent who terrorised defences in the Premier League.

"Keith's goal was almost 'Messi-like' –outside of the right foot and into the top corner.

"It looked a little bit of a fluke, as though he tried to put it across the goal it landed in the corner.

"But if anyone deserved a goal for his performance then it was him."

Birmingham: (4-4-2): Maik Taylor; Larsson, Martin Taylor, Ridgewell, Murphy, Fahey (Bouazza 85), Carsley, Bowyer, Sinclair; Phillips (Jerome 31), Bent (Costly 76).

Subs Not Used: Doyle, Queudrue.