Birmingham City 0-4 Derby County: Wayne Rooney’s Rams enjoy St Andrew’s game

Birmingham City suffered a defensive nightmare at St Andrew’s when the grateful Derby County achieved their best win over Wayne Rooney.

Former Blues defender Krystian Bielik took advantage of home goalkeeper Neil Etheridge’s knockdown in the 15th minute to volley from close range.

Within two minutes, local captain Harlee Dean handed out an unnecessary penalty, which was clinically hidden by Graeme Shinnie.

Blues then let in a third when they made a mess clearing Shinnie’s corner, allowing Colin Kazim-Richards to score from close range.

Young Jason Knight completed the scoring after 77 minutes when he carefully concealed a cross down the right from Kamil Jozwiak.

It was Derby’s biggest league win on the road since a 4-0 win in the same place for Steve McClaren’s team against Gary Rowett’s Blues on Boxing Day 2014.

Derby comes out of the bottom three of the championship for the first time in two months after extending its unbeaten streak in this game to nine games.

Blues, who had also conceded four goals in their previous home game against Middlesbrough, had responded well with a clean sheet on Saturday at Nottingham Forest, another of manager Aitor Karanka’s former clubs.

But any hope of a repeat evaporated from the moment Etheridge released his howl, allowing the ball to bounce meekly off his chest as he soared unmarked to grab Shinnie’s right corner.

Bielik was the first to respond, launching a volley with his right foot from 10 yards to score his first goal for the club. And the worst was to continue for the hosts.

Dean was in no danger on the right edge of the Blues box, but his clumsy challenge to Louie Sibley gave the Derby youngster a chance to go down and Shinnie did the rest, shooting a nice penalty.

Then, from another Shinnie corner from the right, the ball was deflected by local midfielder Adam Clayton before Kazim-Richards dived for the finishing touch from a yard.

With the score in place, the Blues added a quarter in the 77th minute when Jozwiak came down the right, slashed in with his left foot and curled over a cross. He sank past the Blues defense at the far post, where the alert Knight slid unmarked to guide home with his left foot from close range.

After scoring six points in his first 11 games this season with Philip Cocu, and then losing the next two, Derby has now racked up 13 out of 10 with Rooney.

Karanka’s Blues, by contrast, have scored just one point out of a possible 15, and are now just four ahead of Derby, who has a game in hand.

Derby’s next trip will see Sheffield Wednesday unmanaged on New Year’s Day, while City’s next game will be at home to Blackburn Rovers the following day.

Birmingham City boss Aitor Karanka:

“It’s like going to the cinema and seeing the same movie. One mistake, one goal. Two mistakes, two goals. Three mistakes, three goals.

“It is difficult to accept, but it is something that we are suffering. And it is difficult to understand when in one game you are perfect and in the next you make the same mistakes as a couple of games before.

“I apologize to the fans. But you must continue to believe in the team. Three days ago we did well, why not the same? I was expecting ups and downs this season, but not these same individual mistakes in every game.”

Derby County Acting Chief Wayne Rooney:

“That performance has come in the last few weeks. I’m delighted by the players. I’m starting to see a team that believes in themselves. They’ve been doing good performances.

“The results have improved, and although we lost to Preston, the performance was excellent. You can see the confidence growing. They deserve it for the work they have done.

“I’m not worried. We have a lot of quality and hopefully with some players in January we can fix some of the cracks and take it to the next level.”