Birmingham City 3 - 2 Coventry City

Birmingham stun leaders Coventry in chilly thriller



Championship leaders Coventry City's wobble continued as Marvin Ducksch scored twice for Birmingham City to end Blues' slump in fine fashion.

On-loan Liverpool forward Lewis Koumas also netted his first Birmingham goal in a Midlands derby thriller to help ease some of the pressure on boss Chris Davies.

Josh Eccles and Ellis Simms had twice brought Coventry - for whom defender Bobby Thomas was shown a straight red card in stoppage time after lashing out at Phil Neumann - level in a seesaw clash.

Frank Lampard's Sky Blues still top the Championship but have won just two of their past eight games.

Birmingham, meanwhile, ended a seven-game winless run, their goals a combination of great attacking play and poor defending in a freezing second city.

Kai Wagner was outstanding on his Birmingham debut after only sealing his move from Major League Soccer side Philadelphia Union 24 hours earlier and the left-back set up the opener for Ducksch after just six minutes.

The German curled over an excellent ball from the left for Ducksch to score with a cushioned volley.

Coventry equalised just 113 seconds later as Eccles whipped a superb right-footed effort around the static Jack Robinson and held up Jamie Allen's shirt in tribute to his Sky Blues team-mate, who was absent because of a family bereavement.

Liam Kitching should have headed Coventry in front when he directed Matt Grimes' free-kick straight at James Beadle and Blues made the visitors pay as Patrick Roberts played in Koumas to round Carl Rushworth to slot home.

That made it three goals in the opening 17 minutes and there might have been more before the break as Ephron Mason-Clark headed wide for Coventry before Ducksch missed the target at the other end.

Coventry levelled again on the hour mark when Robinson failed to close down Simms and the former Everton striker scored his 10th goal of the season right-footed from the edge of the area.

But Birmingham restored their lead three minutes later when the excellent Roberts fed Ducksch and the German fired home his fifth goal of the season.

Coventry might have had a penalty late on for Tomoki Iwata's tussle with Mason-Clark before they imploded in the 95th minute when Thomas was dismissed for swinging a left hand at Neumann.

Instead, Sky Blues boss Frank Lampard was left to reflect on a second defeat in three games - and a first ever loss to Birmingham as either a player or manager in his 20 meetings with them.

Check back later for comment by Frank Lampard