Wolverhampton Wanderers 1-2 Birmingham City
- Published
David Davis doubled Birmingham's lead with a neat finish against his old club
Ten-man Birmingham City earned their first away win under Gianfranco Zola as they inflicted a fourth straight league defeat on local rivals Wolves.
Home goalkeeper Carl Ikeme's handling error gifted Maikel Kieftenbeld the opener, before David Davis curled in the Blues' second before half-time.
Nouha Dicko's first league goal since 2015 gave Wolves hope after Blues' Paul Robinson was shown a straight red card.
But the visitors survived late pressure to grab a morale-boosting victory.
Victory ended Birmingham's three-match losing run and delivered Zola a second win from his 15 games in charge, while Wolves slipped to 20th in the table following Burton's draw with Blackburn.
The opener came when Kieftenbeld was in the right place to pounce as Ikeme spilled Craig Gardner's right-wing cross, sliding in to net his first goal of the season.
Former Wolves midfielder Davis' finish for Birmingham's second required far more technical skill, as he curled the ball in first time from the edge of the area as Che Adams' ball was deflected into his path.
Those were the only two shots on target in a first half which saw Wolves twice miss headed chances from set-pieces, but the hosts applied significant pressure after the break.
Robinson was dismissed after he was deemed to have swung an arm at Jon Dadi Bodvarsson, and Dicko - who had not netted in the league since the final day of the 2014-15 campaign - swept in Helder Costa's low cross to halve the deficit.
Wolves went close through Matt Doherty and Birmingham were grateful to substitute Krystian Bielik for two last-ditch challenges in the closing stages.
Wolves boss Paul Lambert: "We know that we are in a fight. You have to realise what you are involved in. We can't keep dominating games and come away with nothing. That has to stop.
"We are a really talented group when we are on song. Sometimes when you go through these things it makes you stronger.
"I think you have to be streetwise. It is not an individual blame game, we win together and lose together. You have to do the right things and we will come through it.
"We are above the line and everyone thinks you are okay. But we are not okay. You have to eat, sleep and drink it to make sure you are never in this position again."
Birmingham manager Gianfranco Zola: "I am delighted because of the win and the performance. We have had tough times. In the second half we played very well. We looked like we were stronger.
"The sending-off could have killed a lot of teams but we showed a lot of character.
"The players are relieved, happy and excited because we have been through a lot of suffering in the last few weeks. It is not easy to pick the players up when there are so many bad results.
"This is a break that they deserve as they work very hard and believe in what we are doing. No-one can question the attitude and the passion that everyone has at this club and we will work even harder as we want this to be the beginning of things."