Doyle stands tall

The Republic of Ireland Under 21 international, who has just a handful of Championship matches under his belt, produced the performance of his short first-team career to help the Blues back above Derby into second.

Scroll down to read more:

This Midlands derby looked as good as over after two goals inside three first-half minutes from Radhi Jaidi and Sebastian Larsson put Birmingham comfortably in front during a one-sided opening half.

More: • Ade leads Burnley in the right direction

It was a different story in the second half as Leicester, only two points above the drop zone after nine games without a win, started to pile on the pressure.

Waves of attacks rained down on Doyle's goal as newlyinstalled Leicester boss Nigel Worthington went for broke, throwing on two strikers in search of the goals that would have put his team level.

Save for one deflected freekick from Shaun Newton eight minutes from time, Doyle managed to repel everything, with two saves in particular standing out. He clawed away Nils-Eric Johansson's 12-yard shot near the end to preserve the win, but his stop from Richard Stearman's header on the hour was of the highest order.

A relieved Bruce said: "I'm absolutely delighted with him.

"He's a big lad and has a physical presence about him, but tonight he proved what a good job he has done since we threw him in a couple of months ago.

"We made it a bit hairy for ourselves but whenever you enter this stage of the season going for the Championship there is always going to be edginess."

It had looked like a routine away victory when Jaidi rose to meet Gary McSheffrey's rightwing corner in the 16th minute.

Then Stephen Clemence fed Andy Cole, who strode down the left wing despite the attention of a shirt-tugging Johansson and his cross was sidefooted home by Larsson to leave the travelling support dreaming of an easy night.

Birmingham could have settled the game straight after the restart but Cole failed to make the most of the position when a strong run by Fabrice Muamba had left him with a clear sight of goal.

Leicester's fans then discovered their voices and managed to rouse Worthington's players, who were boosted by the introduction of Danny Cadamarteri and Geoff Horsfield.

They fell short, though, but at least Worthington, brought in by chairman Milan Mandaric for the sacked Rob Kelly, has grounds for optimism. "In the first half it was boys against men," he said.

"We were pushed off the ball far too easily.

"We gave away two ridiculous goals and just weren't good enough. At half-time we marked one or two cards, and lo and behold we looked a team again.

"We scored one and we could have scored more.

"I've had 45 minutes from them on Saturday and 45 tonight, and now we need 90 of them in the same game."

LEICESTER (4-4-2): Logan; Stearman, Johansson, Kisnorbo, Maybury (Horsfield 74min); Newton, Jarrett (Hughes 60), Wesolowski, Mattock; Hume, Fryatt (Cadamarteri 64).

Scorer: Newton 82.

BIRMINGHAM (4-4-2): Doyle; N'Gotty, Jaidi, Martin Taylor, Kelly; Larsson (Jerome 90), Muamba, Clemence, McSheffrey; Cole (Campbell 90), Bendtner (Vine 84).

Scorers: Jaidi 16, Larsson 19.

Man of the match: Colin Doyle.

Referee: Lee Probert.