Stern John, a bargain £100,000 buy from Nottingham Forest, justified his move to Birmingham City to spearhead their promotion challenge with a goal on his home debut.

John, similar in style and appearance to Dwight Yorke, impressed with several neat touches as Birmingham attempted to steam-roll their way to their first win of the new year.

The success of John seemingly justified the brave gamble of Birmingham's manager Steve Bruce to make drastic changes to his side as he gets rid of the old guard.

An indication of the wholesale changes Birmingham have made is the fact that only four of the team on duty at St Andrew's played in the 3-1 win at Oakwell last October.

As a result Birmingham completed a rare double but it was well deserved on the overall play as they were impressive in attack but accorded Barnsley numerous openings to make an impact in a hectic but goalless first half.

Birmingham certainly looked dangerous in the opening spell when they threatened to over-run the South Yorkshire club but indifferent finishing enabled Barnsley to remain in the game.

The Midlanders, however, were extremely lucky not to find themselves a goal down after only two minutes when Mike Sheron blasted high over the crossbar after being put clear by Lee Crookes.

Geoff Orefield, Paul Devlin and Tommy Mooney all threatened to open their account. Mooney was the most dangerous with a header from Martin Grainger's corner which was cleared off the line by Dave Mulligan.

However, Birmingham discovered that Barnsley were a much different proposition from the side they defeated last October.

On the back of 12 League games without defeat Barnsley had the courage to take the game to Birmingham, encouraged by the lack of midfield authority and the defence failing to mark Chris Morgan, who was given two free headers from Mitch Ward's corner.

His first was cleared off the line by Bryan Hughes and the second went over the crossbar from only a couple of yards.

At the start of the second half Darren Carter, the England Under-19 international, smashed a shot against the base of the post.

But Birmingham's persistence had to be rewarded and in the 51st minute John put his mark on the proceedings when he side-footed home a square pass from the left by Geoff Horsfield.

Barnsley contrived to try and salvage a draw and the unfortunate Morgan saw a third header from a Ward corner saved by goalkeeper Bennett.

Teams:

Birmingham: Bennett, Grainger, Purse, Vickers, Kenna, Carter, Hughes, Devlin, Mooney (Lazaridis 72), John, Horsfield.

Subs Not Used: Vaesen, Eaden, Michael Johnson, Andrew Johnson.

Booked: John.

Goals: John 51.

Barnsley: Miller, Barker, Morgan, Crooks, Mulligan (O'Callaghan 79), Ward, Gary Jones, Lumsdon, Donovan (Neil 68), Sheron, Dyer (Bedeau 68).

Subs Not Used: Marriott, Lee Jones.

Booked: Gary Jones.

Att: 19,208

Ref: M Jones (Leeds).