Bristol City 0-2 Birmingham City: Miyoshi scores first Birmingham goal in win over Bristol City
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Lukas Jutkiewicz (left) scored his second goal in as many games as Birmingham beat Bristol City at Ashton Gate
Birmingham City continued their unbeaten start to the 2023-24 campaign with a 2-0 win over Bristol City on the road at Ashton Gate.
Substitute Koji Miyoshi scored his first goal for the club since his summer transfer from Royal Antwerp, volleying into the net from a corner a minute before half-time.
Juninho Bacuna struck the post early in the second-half before the Robins saw Rob Dickie sent off for a second yellow card with 15 minutes still on the clock.
Lukas Jutkiewicz, also brought on from the bench, then wrapped up all three points for Birmingham with his second goal in as many games, scoring from close range as the visitors pounced on the counter attack.
The feel-good factor has been growing at Blues ever since former NFL superstar Tom Brady was announced as a new minority owner and Scott Hogan almost got them off to a perfect start inside 60 seconds, but his header landed on the wrong side of the crossbar, instead settling on top of the net.
With most of the play centred around midfield there was little in the way of attack for the majority of the first half, until John Eustace made an early change and brought on Miyoshi after 41 minutes.
He should have instantly broken the deadline after Keshi Anderson squared the ball in the box and Miyoshi began to celebrate as if so, only to discover he had been denied on the line by an outstretched leg from Joe Williams.
Yet Miyoshi did not miss when the ball came back into the box from the corner that followed, striking it clean past Max O'Leary into the top corner to open his Blues account.
Bacuna almost made it 2-0 when he skipped past Dickie and broke forward, but he caught the far post as he tried to drill a shot into the bottom corner.
Bristol City, who have only now won one of their past six league matches at home, recorded no shots on target all game and saw the task get harder when defender Dickie was sent off following a sloppy challenge on Jordan James.
Out of nowhere, Sam Bell set up Nahki Wells for a golden opportunity to draw the Robins level but somehow scuppered his shot and sent wide from a few yards out before a Jordan James and Jutkiewicz one-two put the match to bed late on.
Bristol City manager Nigel Pearson told BBC Radio Bristol:
"I think Birmingham played pretty well but, I talk about it a lot, you've got to be able to deal with key moments.
"The goal that we concede on half time is not good for us and it's an element of switching off even though it's a good finish. The second goal comes from us being in good possession and choosing the wrong option pass wise where we'd started to create some decent situations from wide areas.
"It's all about decision making during the game, we'd been a little bit frustrated at home in terms of our ability to step up to the game especially in full-back areas and that's been a bit of a concern for us.
"The bottom line is we didn't make the most of our key moments and after having a player sent off we had a golden opportunity to equalise and didn't take it. There's nobody else to blame but ourselves."
Birmingham City manager John Eustace told BBC Radio WM:
"I was really pleased with the efforts of the whole squad, I've said it's a squad game and I think the way we went about our business was very, very good.
"Two injuries before half-time could have cost us but (Juninho) Bacuna going into that area at right back was outstanding, the back four were outstanding, Koji (Miyoshi) filling in coming off the bench played a vital part in winning the game.
"It's about the squad and it was an excellent performance."