Birmingham 1 City 2.

An impressive 2-1 victory at St.Andrews saw us extend our unbeaten run to ten games. After falling behind early to a goal from ex-Red Nicky Butt, which must have left all Newcastle fans shaking their heads, we got our act together to take all three points through a tap in from Joey Barton and a stunning second half strike from Andrew (nee Andy) Cole.
A pleasing three points this as I expect Birmingham to be one of the teams who will be competiting with us in the quest for a UEFA Cup berth, so realistically these are the games we need to be taking points from.
Equally pleasing for Stuart Pearce was another assured performance at the back for Stephen Jordan and the form of David James, but mainly the blossoming partnership between Cole and Vassell, with Steve Bruce admitting his side did not get to grips with them throughout the game.
I remember a 1-0 defeat at the start of last season in which the side turned in a lacklustre performance under Kevin Keegan which seems light years away from the performances of late under Stuart Pearce.
A shame that some Blues probably decided against this game in favour of Lancashire's C&G semi-final defeat against Warwickshire at nearby Edgbaston.
We now travel onto Sunderland on Tuesday night for an away game in which we should start as firm favourites to take all three points and with Portsmouth at home to come, although I really should know better as a City fan than to look ahead of games, we can certainly set ourselves a good platform in the first month of the season.