Blackburn Rovers have heaped further misery on Birmingham City by recording a 1-0 victory over the Championship strugglers at Ewood Park.
Birmingham sacked their manager Lee Clark on Monday after just one win in 11 games, but temporary bosses Richard Beale and Malcolm Crosby were unable to improve their fortunes at the bottom of the table.
Blackburn should have taken the lead after six minutes after good work from Jordan Rhodes set up Corry Evans, but the Northern Ireland international missed his kick from six yards out.
Up the other end, Clayton Donaldson was proving to be a constant menace to the Blackburn defence but on three occasions, he failed to convert his effort after some fine approach play from David Cotterill.
Birmingham defender Paul Caddis almost broke the deadlock shortly after the half-hour mark but his stinging drive was tipped away by Jason Steele.
Despite impressing in the first half, Birmingham fell behind early in the second when Ben Marshall cut inside from the left before drilling a shot inside Colin Doyle's near post.
It got better for Rovers soon afterwards when Neil Eardley was shown the red card after accumulating two yellows in the space of eight minutes to leave his team up against it heading into the final half-hour.
Blackburn immediately pushed for a second goal that would almost secure the three points but Doyle produced two interventions in the space of a minute from Tom Cairney and Marshall to keep the Blues in the game.
Wes Thomas offered a response for Birmingham but after he was denied by Steele, David Dunn wasted a chance for Blackburn when blazing over the crossbar from eight yards.
Blackburn remained on the front foot but they squandered more openings in front of goal, with Cairney striking a post when well placed.
Evans drilled a late chance wide for Rovers, but Gary Bowyers's side easily held on to register the win to move into 11th place in the standings.
Darren Plant
