Kapo breaks Blues home duck

The former Juventus striker settled the issue eight minutes from half-time when he turned home a cross from Sebastian Larsson.

Blues deserved their second success of the season but Bolton remained anchored in the relegation zone after losing for the fifth time in six matches.

Cameron Jerome came close to giving Birmingham the lead after only two minutes. A long clearance from Maik Taylor caused confusion between Bolton central defenders Abdoulaye Meite and Andy O'Brien and keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen. Jerome took advantage but failed to make proper contact on his shot which dribbled wide of the post.

The home side appealed in vain for a penalty after a challenge by Jlloyd Samuel on Larsson after he had cut into the area but referee Phil Dowd waved play on. Bolton had their first half chance when skipper Kevin Nolan scuffed his shot wide from 15 yards out after Liam Ridgewell's clearing header had fallen into his path.

Bolton started to come more into the game and the impressive El-Hadji Diouf spotted the surging run of Samuel into the Birmingham area with his fiercely struck shot parried out for a corner by Maik Taylor.

Then after 37 minutes Birmingham broke the deadlock through Kapo's second goal of the campaign. Larsson sent over a deep superb left-footed ball towards the far post and Kapo stuck his foot out and steered it past Jaaskelainen who tried in vain to prevent it from crossing the line.

Blues opened the second half promising and a poor clearance from Jaaskelainen fell straight to Jerome but he took two or three touches when the first-time shot was on and his eventual drive went well wide.

Larsson had the beating of Samuel and forced Jaaskelainen into a superb save away to his left from a thumping drive. Kelly came to City's rescue with a superb last ditch tackle to block the shot of substitute Daniel Braaten who had made a 40-yard run into the box to meet Diouf's well measured pass.

Samuel was stretchered off with what looked like a hamstring injury after being caught by Larsson. Djourou then had a header cleared off the line by Gavin McCann from Larsson's centre.