THE top of the Championship is like an old friend whom Birmingham City visit regularly even though they would prefer to be keeping far more refined company. When they arrived there yesterday after beating QPR, it was with a tough, unspectacular display, which strongly suggested they had the resolve to mix it with anything this roughhouse of a league had to throw at them and find themselves dining at the top table again.

They also have so many attacking riches that they could start with James McFadden on the bench and Marcus Bent at home, allowing Kevin Phillips to add to a tally of league goals that now stands at more than 200. The goal came just before half-time after Birmingham had met and withstood Rangers’ physical approach. Other than that, the failure of Iain Dowie’s QPR side to attempt any sort of respectable comeback in the second half spoke volumes about a side lacking in confidence and ideas. The club’s billionaire owners won’t have seen a run of three defeats and a draw as part of their three-year plan.

“I did warn the players it would not be pretty for the first 20 minutes and we would have to work to retain the ball, and that was the way it turned out,” said Birmingham’s manager Alex McLeish.

QPR and Gavin Mahon in particular had been putting themselves about in the first 15 minutes. Mahon’s challenge on Lee Carsley eventually led to the Birmingham captain leaving the field but the visitors weren’t the only culprits. Liam Ridgewell had the ball in the net courtesy of “the hand of God”. The centre-back would have been celebrating a goal were it not for the sharp eyes of a linesman. Instead, he was booked for his reenactment of Diego Maradona’s infamous goal. However, once McLeish pitted the fleet-footed Quincy Owusu-Abeyie against QPR left-back Damien Delaney, Rangers were pegged back.

Still chances were few and far between and it looked ominous for Phillips and Garry O’Connor up front with so much strike power on the bench but Phillips was deadly with the one that came his way on the stroke of half-time.

David Murphy sent a long ball forward from the left-back position to the edge of the QPR box that centre-back Fitz Hall should have cut out. Instead, he allowed O’Connor to get in behind him and cross from the dead-ball line to Phillips, who stabbed the ball past Radek Cerny. Muscle cancelled out might in the second half, with centre-back Radhi Jaidi unlucky not to increase Birmingham’s lead on 72 minutes.

First, Ridgewell appeared to be tugged back in the penalty area as he sought to get his head on to a long pass from Murphy, only for the ball to drop to Jaidi, who forced a good low save from Cerny. All QPR managed in response was a lame header from Mikele Leigertwood into the arms of Maik Taylor as they crashed to their third defeat in four league games. The watching club chairman, Flavio Briatore, cannot have been impressed, though Dowie was putting on a typically brave face. “We are not firing on all cylinders but we have enough character to get us out of a difficult little run of points.”

Star man:David Murphy (Birmingham)

Birmingham City:Taylor 6, Parnaby 6, Jaidi 8, Ridgewell 6, Murphy 8, Augustien 7, Carsley 7 (Nafti 50min, 6), Larsson 6, Quincy 7 (McFadden 75min, 5), Phillips 7, O’Connor 7.

Queens Park Rangers:Cerny 6, Ramage 6 (Connelly 87min), Hall 5, Stewart 6, Delaney 5, Rowlands 5 (Ledesma 80min), Mahon 6 (Buzsaky 68min) Leigertwood 6, Cook 5, Blackstock 5, Agyemang 5

Referee:A D’Urso Attendance:18,498