Boss Paul Jewell says the Blues’ diamond formation suits midfielder Lee Bowyer, the scorer of Town’s late winner at West Ham last night. It was by no means the first time Canning Town-born Bowyer, a Hammers player twice in his career, has scored against his local club.
Joking that Bowyer’s goal was "the first thing he’s done” since joining the Blues, Jewell says the current formation gets the best from the 34-year-old: "He’s got experience and he’s been round the block, and the system we’re playing at the moment seems to suit him.”
The Blues manager said he spotted Bowyer’s cousin and former Town loanee Mark Noble mentioning the one-time England man’s scoring record against the Hammers in yesterday’s match programme with last night’s goal his seventh against the club he was with between January and July 2003 and again from June 2006 to July 2009.
Last season, Bowyer netted for Birmingham in a 3-1 victory at St Andrew’s and in 2009/10 he scored the only goal as the Midlanders ran out 1-0 winners at the same venue.
Earlier in his career, Bowyer was regularly on the scoresheet for Leeds against the club he supported as a boy. In the 1998/99 season he notched twice in a 4-0 victory at Elland Road and scored another in a 5-1 win during the same campaign.
Bowyer’s first goal against the Irons came in his first season at Leeds, 1996/97, the midfielder netting the second in a 2-0 Whites win at Upton Park.
The player himself was delighted with the Blues’ performance in what he says is often an intimidating atmosphere: "A lot of teams would come here and crumble, as it is a very demanding place to play at.
"First half we felt that we could have gone in two or three ahead but fortunately things are beginning to turn for us and we got the win in the end, which I thought we deserved.
"We've become more solid and are a lot harder to beat and I thought we showed great character to win it at the end.
"We're very confident at the minute and we will be looking to take another three points against Brighton on Saturday and try and break into the top six."
Manager Jewell, who celebrates his 47th birthday today, also had praise for full-backs Carlos Edwards and Aaron Cresswell: "If we’re going to play that way they’ve got to be able to get forward and in the first half I think we got 13 crosses in.
"Some of them weren’t of great quality but there were some great balls going in the box and we looked full of confidence.
"We had plenty of movement, plenty of options on the ball, we played with vigour and energy and the biggest thing, as anyone will tell you, is that we’re playing with confidence.”
Jewell confirmed that Daryl Murphy was replaced in the matchday 16 just prior to kick off after pulling a hamstring in the warm-up. Nathan Ellington took the Irishman's place on the bench and came on late on.