Birmingham City 3-1 Fulham

Lukas Jutkiewicz's sixth goal of the season was his second in three home games

Birmingham City survived the final-day threat of relegation for the third time in five seasons as they ended Fulham's automatic Championship promotion hopes.

With Cardiff drawing, a win for Fulham would have seen them go up.

But they were always struggling after first-half goals from Lukas Jutkiewicz and home skipper Harlee Dean.

Tom Cairney briefly gave Fulham hope with six minutes left, but Che Adams jinked his way into the box to slide home a low right-foot shot.

The Cottagers' first defeat in 24 league games since December leaves them third, and facing Derby County in the play-offs as they bid to return to the Premier League after a four-year absence.

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Blues, the EFL's joint lowest scorers with Burton with 38 in 46 games, hit three in a league match for only the third time this season.

But, after a season-long battle against the drop in a second successive campaign of three managers, Garry Monk's men finally finished five points above the bottom three, again in 19th - just as they did under Harry Redknapp 12 months ago.

It always looked on the cards once confident Blues had taken the lead when Jutkiewicz converted Wes Harding's low cross for his sixth goal of the season - and his fourth in seven games.

Home keeper David Stockdale then saved from Stefan Johansen before unmarked defender Dean, back from suspension, was left free to steer home Jota's left-wing cross, his first goal for the club.

Stockdale maintained Blues' two-goal half-time advantage when he saved from Cairney, who did pull a goal back when he headed in on 84 minutes.

The Blues keeper then turned over Aleksandar Mitrovic's header before Adams breezed through to cheekily finish Fulham off.

Birmingham City boss Garry Monk told BBC WM:

"We knew we were playing against an exceptional team that had been on the best run in the country, 23 games unbeaten, but I could sense it in the week.

"It's what the fans want to see. They want to see commitment and fight and then, on top of that, they want to see some quality, and we had that.

"We thoroughly deserved that win. Te key point was making sure that we finish it on our terms.

"We had an opportunity last week to do that. We didn't do that, so the response needed to be there and it was."

Fulham boss Slavisa Jokanovic:

"I always believe we are going to win the next game. Because we lost one game, I am not going to change my mind.

"We showed quality. The character we showed many times - and we are going to be ready for the next game.

"We're disappointed, not because we're in the play-offs. We're disappointed because we lost a great chance to win the game.

"It's part of football and we must be ready for the challenge. We cannot be satisfied. It's simple. We didn't play well enough."