Luton 0-5 Birmingham: Scott Hogan scores twice as Blues hammer Hatters
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Scott Hogan's two goals put Birmingham well on their way to a handsome win at Luton
Scott Hogan's double crowned a sparkling display by Birmingham as they thrashed hapless Luton at Kenilworth Road for their second successive away win.
Defender Marc Roberts headed Blues in front before Hogan nodded in Tahith Chong's cross to double their advantage.
The impressive Chong, on loan from Manchester United, then set up Hogan to make it 3-0 early in the second half.
Substitutes Gary Gardner and Chuks Aneke both found the net in the closing stages to wrap up Blues' biggest away win since a 6-0 victory at Millwall in January 2012.
In a lively opening, Birmingham goalkeeper Matija Sarkic produced a close-range stop to deny Tom Lockyer before the visitors snatched a seventh-minute lead.
Jeremie Bela's corner caught the Hatters' defence out as Roberts darted to the near post and directed his glancing header beyond Simon Sluga.
Luton's back line faltered again just before the half-hour, failing to fully clear a corner and Chong delivered the ball back into the penalty area for Hogan to beat Sluga with a looping header.
Hatters boss Nathan Jones made two substitutions, as well as switching to a back four - but his defence were undone again just three minutes after the restart, with Chong surging into the box and the ball ran loose for Hogan to sweep home.
Luton looked shell-shocked and, although substitute Fred Onyedinma went close to pulling a goal back, the Blues - who had scored only once in their first three games - topped off a superb performance with two more of their own in the last six minutes.
Maxime Colin set up Gardner, who had only just come on in place of Lukas Jutkiewicz, to unleash a curling shot that sailed out of Sluga's reach and into the net.
Summer signing Aneke rounded off the Hatters' humiliation, forcing the ball over the line for his first Birmingham goal after Bela's effort had been blocked.
The win lifts Lee Bowyer's side to eighth in the table, with Luton dropping to 11th.
Luton manager Nathan Jones told BBC Three Counties Radio:
"It's not often we put in performances like that but today we've been a mile off in both boxes. The work-rate, the aggression wasn't there today. We were lacking in the real important bits and I don't know why.
"We've put in as many good set-plays as them but they've got their head on theirs and scored. The third goal absolutely kills us - we give it away on the edge of their box and that's just symptomatic of us today.
"I'm a little bit embarrassed by the performance. If we put in too many like that we're not going to be anywhere near where we want to be but I'm not going to overreact. We just have to make sure we learn from that and bounce back."
Birmingham manager Lee Bowyer told BBC WM 95.6:
"That's the best performance that any of my teams have done since I've been a manager, from start to finish.
"We defended like men out there and the way we passed the ball, some of the passages of play we had were excellent.
"I'm just delighted for the players, they need to believe in themselves and I don't think anyone else is going to come and score five here. From start to finish, you couldn't fault them in any way, not one bit.
"Even when you're three up, to keep competing the way they did and not give up on any balls, that's the most pleasing thing for me. They could easily have just said 'we've won this game' but they didn't, they kept pushing and pushing."