Birmingham City 1-2 Blackburn Rovers: Tony Mowbray ends tenure with win
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Ben Brereton Diaz's 24th goal of the season could well have been his best
Blackburn Rovers gave outgoing manager Tony Mowbray a final memory to savour as two wonderful first-half strikes helped his side beat Birmingham City.
Rovers had the best of the first-half chances and finally went ahead when John Buckley blasted into the top corner from 30 yards.
Top scorer Ben Brereton Diaz doubled the lead with an excellent top-corner strike of his own just before half-time.
Kristian Pedersen marked his final game for City with a late consolation as he broke into the box and saw his low left-footed shot go into the bottom right corner.
The win sees Rovers end the season in eighth place, with Mowbray leaving 267 games after his appointment in February 2017.
Blues boss Lee Bowyer - who has cast doubt on his future at St Andrew's - sees his side finish in 20th position, having won just one of their last 10 matches.
Neil Etheridge made good saves from Sam Gallagher and Ryan Hedges as Rovers had the better of the chances, with Hedges proving a particular thorn in City's side early on.
It was Hedges who laid the ball off for Buckley's spectacular opener and he should have got the second shortly before Brereton Diaz did find the net, as he blazed over when unmarked eight yards out.
Jordan James had Blues' best effort of the first period when he forced Thomas Kaminski to palm an effort around the post shortly after going a goal down.
Lyle Taylor almost pulled one back four minutes after the break, but Kaminski did well to save his header at the back post, while at the other end Etheridge did well to keep out efforts from Brereton Diaz and Hedges.
Pedersen, whose contract ends in the summer, wrapped up his four-year Blues career with his second goal in three games as his side's poor form continued until the end of the campaign - amid reports of a possible takeover at St Andrew's.
Birmingham City manager Lee Bowyer told BBC WM:
"I think it's another one of them where we don't really do too much wrong, I don't think either goalkeeper really touched the ball first half.
"Both teams cancelled each other out and two moments of brilliance puts us two behind without doing anything wrong.
"They were two unbelievable strikes from distance, the two best strikes I've seen all season by a country mile.
"But fair play to the players at half-time they picked themselves up and gave it a go in the second half and we got a goal back, but we just couldn't manage to get the equaliser."
Blackburn Rovers manager Tony Mowbray told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"It was a good performance, a good victory for us, just a little bit too late really in the season.
"I think ultimately if you break it down we didn't score enough goals, and to be fair today we scored two worldy goals, they were both goal of the season contenders for us and you don't get them every week.
"It's 13 times that we didn't score over however long it is, and if you don't score you can't win.
"For us it was a good day, I was delighted with the goals we scored, delighted with the level of control generally that we had.
"The season's done, we've fallen just short and I hope this club can build on the points accumulation this year and next season take it into the 70s or 80s."