Hull City 0-2 Birmingham City: Troy Deeney & Juninho Bacuna give Blues win
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Birmingham's Juninho Bacuna, playing in an unfamiliar right wing-back role, scored his first league goal of the season
Birmingham City continued their improved Championship form with a win at struggling Hull City, in a game which kicked off 20 minutes late because the goals were too big.
After the posts were sawn down to size it was the away side who took the lead when Troy Deeney slammed home a penalty, after Krystian Bielik was pulled to ground in the area by Jacob Greaves.
Blues doubled their advantage shortly after the interval through Juninho Bacuna's thumping finish from 25 yards.
It could, and maybe should, have been worse for the the managerless hosts but Deeney crashed a penalty way over the crossbar after Tahith Chong was felled in the area by Tigers goalkeeper Nathan Baxter.
It is now three wins in six for John Eustace's upwardly mobile Blues, who had not won at Hull City since September 2009 prior to Sunday's success.
Hull were toothless throughout despite dominating possession and have now taken just three points from their past eight matches and are one point above the relegation zone.
A saw was used to shorten the length of the goalposts, which were two inches too big
The home side's best, and in truth only, real chance came when Cyrus Christie saw a header from a corner brilliantly clawed out by Blues keeper John Ruddy when it was 1-0.
Birmingham made the perfect start to the second period when Bacuna brought down a raking crossfield pass from Chong, advanced on goal and unleashed a quality strike beyond Baxter just two minutes after the break.
Thereafter Eustace's men kept the home side at arm's length and Bielik saw a shot clip the outside of the post, before Deeney clattered a spot-kick over the bar after a disastrous attempted header back from Tigers midfielder Ozan Tufan had let Chong in.
Hull owner Acun Ilicali told BBC Radio Humberside before the match that he was in "no rush" to appoint a permanent successor to Shota Arveladze and that caretaker Andy Dawson was in consideration for the role.
However, they will need to vastly improve on this showing when they travel to Blackpool on Wednesday if they are to get their season going again. Birmingham, who are now up to 12th, host table-topping Burnley on the same night.
Hull caretaker Andy Dawson told BBC Radio Humberside:
"We started the second half terribly and conceded a poor goal and then we just didn't respond.
"We didn't show any resilience or fight and I said to the players that this league is relentless and you have to keep fighting. I saw a team in Birmingham who did that and that is what we need to get better at.
"The first half was the best we'd played in a long time but we gave a disappointing goal away. We had some fantastic chances from crosses, so I had to give the boys credit for the first half.
"The second half was messy and we've got to be better. People started to do their own thing when you have to keep believing in what you're doing."
Birmingham boss John Eustace told BBC WM:
"Obviously I'm delighted with victory and I thought the performance was outstanding with and without the ball today.
"These are a really good team and they've got some great individuals. We knew how difficult this game was going to be and we showed great character.
(On Juninho Bacuna) "I think his goal summed up his performance today. We asked him to play out of position but I didn't have any problems putting him there and he scored a special goal.
"It's a long season and nobody is getting carried away. We just want to be competitive and give ourselves an opportunity in every game."