Clayton Donaldson's first-half hat-trick has helped Birmingham City beat newly-promoted Bristol City 4-2, moving the Blues into the top six in the Championship.

Gary Rowett's men took the lead inside 10 minutes when David Cotterill's pinpoint cross found Donaldson, who fired home from close range.

On 20 minutes, the Blues scored their second after Donaldson ran onto a through-ball from Jon-Miquel Toral before sliding the ball low past Frank Fielding.

The Robins were able to pull one back just after the half-hour mark as Jonathan Kodjia scored his third goal for the club since joining from Angers in the summer.

However, Birmingham were awarded a penalty before half time when Aaron Wilbraham was adjudged to have brought down Toral.

Donaldson completed his hat trick as he stepped up and sent his spot kick down the middle, wrong-footing Fielding in the process.

The visitors struggled to contain the 31-year-old forward and nearly a conceded a fourth soon after the restart as Donaldson fired wide of the target.

On 61 minutes, Marlon Pack tried to haul the League One champions back into the game, but his shot drifted narrowly wide of the target.

They did score a second with a quarter of the game left as Kodjia took advantage of a set piece to find the top corner of Tomasz Kuszczak's net to set up a grandstand finish.

However, Birmingham made sure of victory late on after Jonathan Grounds produced a powerful header from Cotterill's cross.