Birmingham City 1-0 Bolton Wanderers

Clayton Donaldson (right) has scored twice in his last three games

Clayton Donaldson's first-half goal gave Birmingham a 1-0 win over Bolton, who are still without an away victory in the Championship this season.

Donaldson tucked away a low cross from Diego Fabbrini at the near post to claim his seventh goal of the season.

Blues are now just three points away from a play-off position after a first win in four games.

Bolton, who avoided a winding-up order on Monday after agreeing a £7.5m takeover, remain second from bottom.

Former Bolton striker Dean Holdsworth, who heads the consortium which is set to take control at the Macron Stadium, again watched from the stands.

And he saw another toothless performance from a side missing top scorer Gary Madine after he was left out by manager Neil Lennon for disciplinary reasons.

Birmingham did not carry much threat but broke the deadlock when Donaldson flicked the ball home after being set up by former Watford midfielder Fabbrini on his first start for Blues.

They almost added a late second when substitute David Cotterill was denied by Paul Rachubka on his first league start for Bolton.

Bolton have failed to win in 18 away games in the Championship, stretching back to last April

Bolton manager Neil Lennon:

"What we need to do is get the (transfer) embargo lifted and get some players in to bolster the squad. It's wafer thin at the moment.

"We do need a bit of strength in depth, it's something we've lacked for a while. It (the takeover) has not gone through yet so once it does we'll know what position we're in."

On his disciplinary action against Madine: "You have to set certain standards as a manager and I'm pretty fair with the players, but there are some things which you can't tolerate and you have to put a marker down and that's what I've done.

"It was at the weekend. I'm not going to go into it, it's been dealt with internally.

"It's up to Gary, the ball is in his court. He has to have a change in his thinking. There are things I will put up with and there are things I just can't, otherwise you'll have anarchy on your hands."

Birmingham manager Gary Rowett:

"You always felt this was a really pivotal game. It was just a case of winning the game.

"We're not a free-scoring team, we didn't use the ball well enough but the one bit of quality in the game we ended up scoring from.

"We're still very much in the mix, something that, after 32 games, everyone at the club everyone would have been really pleased with."