Joe Lolley and Nahki Wells score as Huddersfield beat Birmingham
Birmingham slumped to yet another home defeat as lowly Huddersfield picked up a valuable three points with a 2-0 Sky Bet Championship victory at St Andrew's.
The Midlands club never recovered from a disastrous start when Joe Lolley gave the Terriers a shock lead after just 31 seconds.
Birmingham attempted to get back into the game - and out of their recent slump in fortunes following an outstanding start to the season - but an 83rd minute goal from Nahki Wells settled the issue for the visitors.
Birmingham, with only one home win in their previous six games at home, were expected to be more positive.
Instead they again started with only one striker which played into the hands of Huddersfield as they exploited the situation and get the first three points for new manager David Wagner.
Huddersfield moved out of the relegation zone with the victory, only their fourth of the campaign.
In their fluorescent strip Huddersfield certainly stood out on a dismal afternoon. They were bright and adventurous and certainly responded to the call from Wagner to adopt a more attacking style.
And they made a dream start after just 31 seconds when Birmingham were completely caught wrong-footed by the speed of Sean Scannell.
His cross was cleverly allowed to go across the face of the goal by Wells to the unmarked Lolley to convert the easiest of chances and put Birmingham immediately on the back foot.
It was a further 15 minutes before the home side were able put in a goalscoring attempt which came from a long-range effort by Demarai Gray.
Such was the confusion in Birmingham's defence was that they were lucky not to concede a second goal.
Wells did the hard work with a low cross from the left which Jamie Paterson, only a few yards from goal, missed completely.
There was a similar incident in the following minute when Nicolai Brock-Madsen, operating as Birmingham's sole striker, narrowly missed a low cross by David Davis from a couple of yards.
Lolley wasted an even better chance just before the break. Scannell, who was always troublesome when in possession, produced another fine cross to Lolley whose low shot went well wide of a gaping goal.
Birmingham changed their second half tactics when they sent on their two youngsters, Solomon-Otabor and Jacques Maghoma, but Huddersfield tenaciously kept at their task to frustrate the Midlands club.
They were, however, indebted to a point-blank save by Jed Steer to foil Jon Toral before Wells settled the game with seven minutes remaining following another low cross from Scannell.
Source: PA
