It was all about the opening of each half. Danny Ings can't stop scoring just now and it was he who gave us that early lead, and he added his second of the night nine minutes into a second half that had got off to an explosive start with Scott Arfield's first league goal for the Clarets just seventeen seconds in.
There could have been more goals, but no one will surely complain at scoring three, keeping a clean sheet, winning comfortably, playing well and going up to fourth place in the league table.
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| Two more goals for Danny Ings |
I don't think we could have wished for much more and this on a night when I wasn't very confident. I don't know why, maybe it was because I was expecting a flat atmosphere, particularly after the derby on Saturday. And my belief of a good performance and result didn't increase as I made my way to the ground on what looked a virtually empty Harry Potts Way.
The team news was as expected, an unchanged team with the same seven substitutes and as the teams came out I noticed that the opposition were led out by a very familiar figure to Turf Moor. Their captain Paul Robinson was suspended and the armband had been handed over to Wade Elliott who, once again, received a very warm welcome from the home supporters.
I felt we might need a really bright, up tempo start. Without that it might turn into a difficult night against a team we haven't beaten at home at this level since a Harry Potts goal gave us a 1-0 win in January 1947.
What we got was exactly what we needed and more. It was a blistering start from the Clarets that saw us quickly in front and, with some better finishing, could have seen the game won before we'd even got our seats warm.
In only the third minute we took the lead and great credit again to the two strikers Sam Vokes and Ings. Vokes was the architect of the goal. He took control of the ball some thirty yards from goal, looked up to see the run of Ings and played the perfect ball through for him.
Ings was onto it and made no mistake as he chipped the ball over advancing goalkeeper Darren Randolph and into the right hand corner of the net.
It was a really well taken goal. It gave us the platform we needed and it might have been even better a couple of minutes later when Ings might have got his second but this time, following an excellent link up between ex-Wolves duo David Jones and Michael Kightly, he put his effort wide of the target as Kightly got in the cross.
Birmingham just simply had no answer to us but they fought their way back into the game with Chris Burke, probably their best player on the night, getting the better of Ben Mee down the Birmingham right before coming into the box and all but finding a team mate as he played the ball across. No one got a touch and the ball eventually hit the far corner flag.
It was a rare attack for the visitors and it was soon Burnley going forward again and once more Ings should probably have got his second from a Kightly cross, this time heading wide of goal.
The game dropped in the closing period of the half but Burnley fully merited the lead as they went into the break and I'm sure the players would have felt they might have been more than the one goal in front.
Manager Sean Dyche was clearly unhappy with referee Mark Brown and had very strong words with him as the players left the pitch, his captain Jason Shackell joining in.
We were forced into a change at half time. Ben Mee was forced to retire due to feeling unwell and that meant Danny Lafferty getting his first action in the first team since the defeat at Brighton at the end of August.
The Northern Ireland international settled back in well and with less than ten minutes gone in the second half it really was all over.
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| Scott Arfield scored his first league goal for the Clarets |
We'd scored an early goal in the first half; our second was even earlier in the second half. Straight from the kick off we played the ball back for Kieran Trippier. His ball forward was headed on by Vokes for Ings on the right.
Ings laid it back for Kightly who turned inside the defender and crossed to the far post where Arfield had pulled off his defender to head back across Randolph. We were in just the 17th second of the half and the lead had been doubled.
It was Arfield's first league goal for Burnley and only his second goal at Championship level, the other a somewhat meaningless effort last January for Huddersfield in a 6-1 defeat at Leicester.
For the next few minutes we simply had Birmingham on the rack. Dean Marney was unfortunate not to get onto another Kightly ball, a defender just about getting a block and then his midfield partner Jones was denied.
Burnley weren't to be denied a third goal. Birmingham's tall defender Dan Burn headed out but a superb header back forward, and a dummy by Vokes, saw Ings get onto the ball as he went between two defenders. He made absolutely no mistake. It was 3-0 and it was gave over with 36 minutes still to play.
Vokes was close with a header; Marney was convinced he should have had a penalty and Ings had a couple of chances to grab a hat trick but saw his shots go over and wide respectively.
Junior Stanislas had, by then, come on for Kightly and Ings was to make way for Keith Treacy, receiving a standing ovation from the Turf Moor crowd. He'd scored twice in a game for the first time but this had been an outstanding overall performance from the striker.
Birmingham were able to offer precious little in the second half. They forced Tom Heaton off his line to deal with one ball in and Elliott hit a long ranger wide of the post.
"Birmingham were poor," I heard one supporter say as I was leaving. He said it in a way that suggested that was the only reason we'd won. The fact is that Birmingham were never allowed to be any better by a Burnley team who, for the most part, were very much in top form.
This really was another good performance from our team and the points were richly deserved.
Interestingly, Birmingham were one of the teams promoted with us to the Premier League in 2009. They were runners up behind champions Wolves. They got one more year up there than we did; Wolves stayed for three years, but it's us now who is looking in the strongest position of the three.
The only disappointment, and it was a massive disappointment, was the attendance. Only 9,641 there and the last time we had less at a home league game was for the visit of Reading in November 2003 when, incidentally, we also won 3-0.
I do think the club need to take a very serious look at their clearly flawed ticketing policy. It's only part of the problem but, in my view, a big part of the problem.
But that's for another day. Today it is about another resounding win for Burnley and, for now, fourth place in the Championship.
The teams were;
Burnley: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee (Danny Lafferty ht), Scott Arfield, Dean Marney, David Jones, Michael Kightly (Junior Stanislas 67), Danny Ings (Keith Treacy 77), Sam Vokes. Subs not used: Alex Cisak, Kevin Long, David Edgar, Brian Stock.
Birmingham: Darren Randolph, Paul Caddis, Kyle Bartley, Dan Burn, Shane Ferguson (Mitch Hancox 49), Tom Adeyemi, Wade Elliott, Jonathan Spector, Chris Burke, Lee Novak (Matt Green 77), Darren Ambrose (Reece Brown 51). Subs not used: Colin Doyle, Callum Reilly, Andy Shinnie, Peter Lovendkrands.
Referee: Mark Brown (East Yorkshire).
Attendance: 9,641.