Worthington Cup finalists Birmingham made a successful return to league action as they stepped up their promotion push with victory over Norwich at St Andrews.

Goals in each half from Bryan Hughes and Darren Purse sent the Canaries to their 10th away defeat of the season.

Chris Llewellyn fired Norwich back into the game 10 minutes from time, but his goal proved to be no more than a consolation.

The victory was just the response that Birmingham manager Trevor Francis had been seeking from his players after the euphoria of beating Ipswich in the semi-final of the Worthington Cup on Wednesday night.

The clash with Norwich began in rather more subdued fashion with Birmingham's fans struggling to rouse themselves.

Hughes did his best to try and spark some response from the stands with his eighth-minute opener.

Winger Stan Lazaridis, one of the key performers during Birmingham's win against Ipswich, once again cased chaos on the left wing.

His cross was aimed in the direction of striker Andrew Johnson, but the bobbling ball defeated the England youth international striker.

Fortunately for Birmingham, Hughes was following up and he rammed his shot past Norwich goalkeeper Andy Marshall.

Norwich struggled to make any kind of impact against a Birmingham side that included debutant midfielder Curtis Woodhouse following his £1million move from Sheffield United.

The best chance they could muster in the opening exchanges was an 11th-minute free-kick from Steen Nedegaard which flew harmlessly wide.

Birmingham should really have made more of their domination, with striker Geoff Horsfield twice going close before right-back Jerry Gill saw his close-range drive beaten away after Marshall had dropped a free-kick.

Norwich came close to making them pay for squandering the openings on the strike of half-time when Zema Abbey saw his shot deflected onto the post after a knock down from Iwan Roberts.

But Birmingham finally killed off the challenge of Norwich when central defender Purse struck from the spot in the 62nd minute. Lee Marshall was adjudged to have handled a cross from Horsfield.

Birmingham have had problems from the spot this season and Purse was given the job of taking the penalty kick. He had no difficulty firing past Marshall to secure Birmingham's 10th home win of the season.

Llewellyn gave Birmingham a few anxious moments when he drove home a cross from Nedegaard at the near post in the 80th minute, but Norwich were unable to build on his late strike.

Teams:

Birmingham: Bennett, Gill, Purse, Michael Johnson, Grainger, Eaden (McCarthy 76), Hughes, Woodhouse, Lazaridis (O'Connor 80), Horsfield, Andrew Johnson (Adebola 55).

Subs Not Used: Poole, Bass.

Booked: Lazaridis, Horsfield.

Goals: Hughes 9, Purse 62 pen.

Norwich: Andy Marshall, Sutch, Lee Marshall (Coote 63), Jackson, Roberts, Russell, Kenton (de Blasiis 68), Mackay, Llewellyn, Nedergaard (Dalglish 84), Abbey.

Subs Not Used: Green, McVeigh.

Booked: Llewellyn.

Goals: Llewellyn 80.

Att: 18,551

Ref: L Cable (Woking).