Birmingham moved seven points clear of third place in the Championship after recording a comfortable victory over Doncaster.

First-half goals from Cameron Jerome and Hameur Bouazza sealed the points for Blues, who gave themselves considerable breathing space ahead of Reading, and they are now firm favourites to claim an automatic promotion spot along with Wolves.

The winning margin could have been wider as Alex McLeish's side had opportunities to score more goals on the way to their first away win since Boxing Day.

Doncaster, who came into the game on a run of just two defeats in the last 12 league outings, struggled to get into the game and any lingering hopes of a late bid for the play-offs are almost certainly over.

It was their first reverse at home since December 20 and leaves them 11 points adrift of sixth place.

Rovers had the first meaningful effort on goal in a scrappy opening 15 minutes and Birmingham goalkeeper Maik Taylor was forced into a full-strength stop to turn a Michael Woods free-kick around the post.

Blues had struggled to make an impact as an attacking force in blustery conditions, but they took a 19th-minute lead with a goal that came out of the blue.

Winger Sebastian Larsson created space on the right and whipped in a high swirling cross.

Jerome got himself underneath the ball and nodded powerfully into the bottom corner from 12 yards.

That seemed to settle a few Birmingham nerves and Jerome almost doubled his tally when he was set free only to fire over from an acute angle.

However, Birmingham did score a second and it came after an almighty gaffe from Rovers left-back Gareth Roberts three minutes before the interval.

Dealing with a routine clearance, Roberts tried to lay the ball back to Neil Sullivan with the outside of his boot.

But he did not get enough on the ball and Bouazza intercepted to score his first goal for the club.

Doncaster made a rare foray into Birmingham's penalty area on the stroke of half-time but Matthew Mills' powerful header from a corner was cleared off the line by veteran full-back Stephen Carr.

Rovers made two substitutions at the interval, introducing Mark Wilson and Paul Hayter, and Wilson had two efforts within the first 10 minutes of the second half, both ably dealt with by Taylor.

As the second half continued Birmingham shut up shop and Doncaster found it difficult to make inroads.

Taylor was only called into action to make a comfortable save from Hayter's header as Blues finally left South Yorkshire with three points in their third consecutive away trip to the county.

Teams:

Doncaster Sullivan, Chambers, Mills, Hird (Price 76), Roberts, Spicer, Stock (Wilson 46), Woods, Wellens (Hayter 46), Coppinger, Heffernan.

Subs Not Used: Lockwood, Shiels.

Birmingham Maik Taylor, Carr, Ridgewell, Jaidi, Queudrue (De la Cruz 71), Larsson, Bowyer, Carsley, Fahey, Bouazza (Sinclair 76), Jerome (O'Connor 65).

Subs Not Used: Doyle, Costly.

Goals: Jerome 19, Bouazza 42.

Att: 11,482

Ref: Peter Walton (Northamptonshire).