Birmingham 3-0 Coventry: Ivan Sunjic and Jay Stansfield give Blues fans something to cheer about - as emphatic derby victory drags Gary Rowett's side out of the relegation zone

Afternoons such as this, when the football is enjoyable and St Andrew’s is in full voice, have been in desperately short supply this season.

From the optimistic start under John Eustace before the new American owners sacked him, the disasterclass under Wayne Rooney and then Tony Mowbray being put out of action, certainty has usually been lacking.

All the while, Birmingham’s league position slid from potential play-off candidates to mid-table to the very real danger of relegation into League One.

This emphatic derby win over Coventry gave those survival prospects a boost with goals by Ivan Sunjic and Jay Stansfield following an early Bobby Thomas own goal.

There was then further cause for celebration when Nahki Wells’ 100th minute penalty for Bristol City to hold relegation rivals Huddersfield to a 1-1 draw lifted Blues out the bottom three.

It was a happy ending to a week which saw chairman Tom Wagner unveil plans for a new stadium to be completed by the end of the decade, part of a £2billion Sports Quarter regeneration.

Such planning for the future looks incongruous if Birmingham crash into League One but there was no doubting the belief here they can avoid that fate as Blues fought tooth and nail.

‘The performance was a lot more of what we’d expect. We were not only solid defensively but scoring goals,’ said Rowett.

‘We spoke quite publicly after Wednesday, the senior lads held themselves accountable. Tonight is a much better feeling.

‘The atmosphere was incredible, they all turned up again and it is nice to reward that loyalty with a performance that had a similar edge to it.’

Coventry’s hopes of making the play-offs for the second consecutive year are pretty much over given Norwich’s win at Preston opened up an eight-point gap.

Maybe Mark Robins’ side had their minds on next weekend’s Wembley FA Cup semi-final against Manchester United because this was a very out-of-character display.

‘It looked like a lethargic performance, with people making poor choices in terms of their tactical roles and that cost us three goals,’ said Robins, who believes his team’s play-off hopes are over.

‘We just couldn’t keep the ball, we didn’t get the basics right and it beggared belief at times.

‘Football keeps giving you opportunities and if you keep turning those down you don’t deserve it.’

Gary Rowett admitted to reading the riot act to his players after their tame midweek defeat by Cardiff City. From the outset, with the backing of a raucous St Andrew’s crowd, it was obvious the team had plenty to prove.

While there was an early moment of consternation when Milan van Ewijk flashed a shot across their goal, Birmingham had the wherewithal to seize control of the game.

Half the stadium thought they’d gone in front after seven minutes when Koji Miyoshi ruffled the side-netting after Lee Buchanan’s cross came all the way through to him.

But Blues took the lead a few minutes later. Keshi Anderson was slipped in behind Sky Blue lines by Tyler Roberts after a short throw-in routine and his attempted cut-back was deflected into his own net by Thomas.

That is precisely the kind of good fortune required in a desperate situation like Birmingham’s and it only revved them up further.

Miyoshi should have done better when he lifted a shot over the Coventry bar from a good position with Roberts upset the cross didn’t come as he positioned himself for a tap-in.

Coventry were struggling to find a grip but they did cause one moment of alarm. It was self-inflicted by John Ruddy, who raced off his line and out of his area to head a clearance straight to Haji Wright.

He lifted the ball back over Ruddy and it looked goalbound until the final bounce took it onto the crossbar. A lucky escape though perhaps a signal it would be Birmingham’s day.

Jay Stansfield fired over and Sunjic drilled a low shot wide before the Croatian midfield duly doubled the lead four minutes before the break.

Seung-Ho Paik’s corner was cleared only weakly by Liam Kitching and it fell nicely to Sunjic, waiting expectantly in a pocket of space on the periphery of the Coventry box.

His strike was clean, guided through a crowd of bodies so Bradley Collins reacted too late as it went under him.

The 2-0 lead was all Birmingham deserved for their first-half energy and endeavour, with a packed St Andrew’s crowd responding with a rousing rendition of ‘Keep Right On’.

Robins shook things up with the triple substitution at half-time and Coventry’s renewed intend was shown by a Kasey Palmer shot within seconds of the restart that Ruddy turned aside. Ben Sheaf then shot wastefully over.

But that storm quickly blew out and Birmingham were three to the good just before the hour.

Buchanan pushed into Coventry’s half before Roberts took over on the left and had the vision to slip the perfect reverse through ball into Stansfield, who finished clinically past Collins.

Even a three-goal lead isn’t considered comfortable here and Ruddy did his bit to keep focus by grabbing Krystian Bielik’s shirt and giving him a stern talking to after an unnecessary tussle with Ellis Simms.

But Coventry were still offering little and Birmingham might even have added a fourth when sub Scott Hogan headed straight at Collins.