Birmingham agree O'Connor deal - Sport in brief - Evening Standard
       

Birmingham agree O'Connor deal

Birmingham have agreed the signing of Scotland striker Garry O'Connor from Lokomotiv Moscow for £2.65million, according to the Russian club.

The 24-year-old, who left Hibernian for Lokomotiv in March last year, is set to pen a two-year contract and will become Steve Bruce's third summer signing if he passes a medical at St Andrews.

In a statement on their official website, www.fclm.ru, Lokomotiv said: "Lokomotiv Moscow have come to an agreement with Birmingham City about the transfer of Lokomotiv attacker Garry O'Connor to the English club."

The statement continued: "The total fee for O'Connor is 5.3million dollars.

"It is expected that after O'Connor passes his medical tests, he will sign a two-year contract with the Birmingham club."

City manager Steve Bruce had been desperate for new firepower to bolster his side's chances of staying in the Barclays Premier League following the return of loan forward Nicklas Bendtner to Arsenal.

Bruce also has Cameron Jerome, DJ Campbell and Rowan Vine at his disposal but all lack top-flight experience, while Mikael Forssell has been dogged by injury problems for the past three years and a doubt remains over his future.

Blues were unsuccessful with a £3million bid for West Ham's Marlon Harewood earlier in the week but have been more fortunate in their attempts to sign O'Connor.

Fulham, Everton and Portsmouth were also linked with the player who scored 58 goals in 164 appearances for Hibs. It was a lack of goals which proved to be Birmingham's Achilles heel when they were last in the Premier League two years ago.

On the international front, O'Connor has been in good form recently, scoring the only goal in Scotland's friendly victory over Austria and finding the target in the 2-0 win over the Faroe Islands.

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