Birmingham stepped up their bid to win automatic promotion to the Premiership by overpowering West Brom at St Andrews.

Two goals from Dele Adebola, who took his tally for the season to 16, and strikes from Peter Ndlovu and Martin Grainger earned Birmingham their fourth win in five games.

Albion, who had gone into the game on the back of two successive wins, struggled to overcome the loss of banned 31-goal leading scorer Lee Hughes as their play-off hopes suffered a major setback.

Birmingham were forced to endure a torrid opening spell when Enzo Maresca was denied by a smart save from City goalkeeper Kevin Poole before winger Kevin Kilbane headed wide.

Having withstood a stern examination of their credentials, Birmingham gradually worked their way back into the game and made the decisive breakthrough through in-form Adebola.

Adebola, who had scored twice in his last appearance at St Andrews when Birmingham beat Portsmouth 4-1, prospered following good work from his strike partner Ndlovu.

Ndlovu rolled a cross into the area from the left wing and Adebola collected the ball with his back to goal. Despite the close attention of Albion central defender Matt Carbon, Adebola was able to turn and fire home a shot from 15 yards that gave the Albion goalkeeper Phil Whitehead no chance.

The goal sparked a furious attacking onslaught by Birmingham as Albion were forced to ride their luck. Gary Rowett saw his 27th minute effort cleared off the line.

But Adebola pounced on the rebound only to be denied by Whitehead. City right-back Jon Bass was then next to try his luck, seeing a 30-yard shot saved by Whitehead before Ndlovu hit the post from close range after the overworked Whitehead pushed out a shot from Martin O'Connor.

Albion were struggling to break out of their own half and Adebola was only denied a second goal on the stroke of half-time when Maresca cleared his header off the line.

It was inevitable that Birmingham's pressure would tell eventually and they only had to wait five minutes after the break to turn their domination into a second goal. A long searching through ball from left-back Simon Charlton picked out Ndlovu and he cut into the area before beating Whitehead with a low left foot drive to grab his 12th goal of the season.

Birmingham were rampant and Adebola added a more realistic look to the scoreline in the 62nd minute when he powered his way past Carbon again and gave Whitehead no chance from 10 yards.

Albion's misery was then completed two minutes from time when Grainger had the simple task of pushing the ball home from two yards after a ring wing centre from Graham Hyde.

Teams:

Birmingham: Poole, Bass, Charlton, Hyde, Rowett, Johnson, Grainger, O'Connor (McCarthy 64), Adebola (Furlong 84), Hughes, Ndlovu (Forster 84).

Booked: Rowett.

Goals: Adebola 24, Ndlovu 50, Adebola 62, Grainger 88.

West Brom: Whitehead, McDermott, Potter (Murphy 73), Flynn, Burgess, Carbon, Quinn (Angel 60), Sneekes, De Freitas, Maresca (Bortolazzi 71), Kilbane.

Booked: McDermott, Flynn, Maresca, Burgess.

Att: 29,060

Ref: T Heilbron (Newton Aycliffe).