Birmingham came close to opening their account in the ninth minute when Jota's free-kick into the heart of Blackburn's defence resulted in Rovers' Spanish goalkeeper David Raya making a top-quality save to keep out a Lukas Jutkiewicz header.

Raya soon showed his quality again, diving to stop a Maxime Colin shot. The ball ran towards Blackburn's net only for the alert Raya to scoop the ball off the line.

Birmingham had their tails up and in the 16th minute their ace marksman Adams notched the opening goal. Gary Gardner won the ball off Amari'i Bell and slipped a pass down the channel to Adams, who smartly scored with a low cross shot to the right of Raya.

Blackburn had little choice but to drop back on the defensive to contain Birmingham, though they still carried a threat and in the 31st minute, leading scorer Graham was only denied an equaliser by a diving save from Lee Camp after the home defence had been caught napping.

Seven minutes into the second half Mulgrew produced a perfect corner from the right which went into the net despite several Birmingham players on the line.

Raya produced another quality save from Kerim Mrabti while another Birmingham substitute, Connor Mahoney, also went close.

Graham then brought the game alight by putting Blackburn into an 82nd-minute lead with a low angled shot only for Adams to pop up a minute later to score from a narrow angle.

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