Birmingham City remain three points behind Wolves following a vital 2-0 success over Doncaster Rovers.
Jerome and Bouazza on target for Birmingham
Birmingham City remain three points behind Wolves following a vital 2-0 success over Doncaster Rovers at the Keepmoat Stadium.
Rovers were slow out of the blocks with first half goals from Cameron Jerome and Hameur Bouazza ensured Blues triumphed - extending their advantage over Reading.
Jerome's superb header put the visitors in front on 19 minutes. Bouazza capitalised on James Cambers' woeful back-pass to settle the game before half-time.
Rovers had the first meaningful effort on goal in a scrappy opening 15 minutes and Birmingham goalkeeper Maik Taylor was forced into a full-strength stop to turn a Michael Woods free-kick around the post.
19th-minute lead
Blues had struggled to make an impact as an attacking force in blustery conditions, but they took a 19th-minute lead with a goal that came out of the blue.
Winger Sebastian Larsson created space on the right and whipped in a high swirling cross. Jerome got himself underneath the ball and nodded powerfully into the bottom corner from 12 yards.
That seemed to settle a few Birmingham nerves and Jerome almost doubled his tally when he was set free only to fire over from an acute angle.
However, Birmingham did score a second and it came after an almighty gaffe from Rovers left-back Gareth Roberts three minutes before the interval.
Dealing with a routine clearance, Roberts tried to lay the ball back to Neil Sullivan with the outside of his boot. But he did not get enough on the ball and Bouazza intercepted to score his first goal for the club.
Cleared off the line
Doncaster made a rare foray into Birmingham's penalty area on the stroke of half-time but Matthew Mills' powerful header from a corner was cleared off the line by veteran full-back Stephen Carr.
Rovers made two substitutions at the interval, introducing Mark Wilson and Paul Hayter, and Wilson had two efforts within the first 10 minutes of the second half, both ably dealt with by Taylor.
As the second half continued Birmingham shut up shop and Doncaster found it difficult to make inroads.
Taylor was only called into action to make a comfortable save from Hayter's header as Blues finally left South Yorkshire with three points in their third consecutive away trip to the county.
