Graphic: Bill Edgar's tactical analysis

The reaction of many of his contemporaries to being substituted in all of his previous starts this season would no doubt have been predictably petulant. Benni McCarthy just scored the decisive goal.

Blackburn Rovers’ South Africa forward responded to what had become an increasingly cold shoulder from Mark Hughes, the manager, by scoring a penalty while having another effort cleared off the line in an impressive 45-minute cameo, the perfect answer to his banishment after being told his fitness was lacking.

“Benni was excellent and he made a real impact,” Hughes said. “He was sharp and looked to be enjoying himself again. All the hard work we’ve put into him is paying dividends.”

McCarthy gave notice of his intention within seconds of his introduction, providing an inviting cut-back for David Bentley, from which only a goalline clearance by Franck Queudrue prevented the winger from doubling his and Blackburn’s tally.

Bentley had opened the scoring with his third goal in four games. After controlling David Dunn’s cut-back, Bentley showed speed of thought and of feet to turn smoothly past his markers, Stephen Kelly and Fabrice Muam-ba, to beat Maik Taylor at his near post with a left-foot finish.

With Birmingham City largely bereft of attacking ideas, Roque Santa Cruz and Stephen Warnock went close for Blackburn and the contest was eventually settled within a 60-second period in the second half as Gary McSheffrey’s close-range effort was ruled out for a marginal offside. Stung by their narrow escape, Blackburn responded, with Santa Cruz making much of Johan Djourou’s challenge to earn a dubious penalty from which McCarthy sent Taylor the wrong way to record a fourth goal of the season before Cameron Jerome, the England Under21 striker, pulled one back for Birmingham.

Steve Bruce, the Birmingham manager, will probably spend the next fortnight campaigning for the use of TV replays after insisting McSheffrey’s goal should have stood. “I’ve seen it on the telly and it’s a goal,” he said. “It’s the biggest decision of the match but the linesman’s got it desperately wrong.

“We had more cameras here than ITN and we’ve seen in the rugby World Cup how the referee goes to the video umpire, who makes a decision in ten seconds. I vowed I wasn’t going to moan about decisions but these are big games for us and it’s about time we did something. The ruling says there has to be daylight and there’s no way on earth you should give a decision like that.”

Hughes was rather more sanguine. “Sometimes they go for you, sometimes they go against you,” he said.

Blackburn Rovers 2 Bentley 15, McCarthy 56 (pen)

(4-3-2-1): B Friedel 7 – B Emerton 7, C Samba 8, A Ooijer 6, S Warnock 7 – R Savage 7 (sub: A Mokoena, 57min 7), Tugay Kerimoglu 7 (sub: M Derbyshire, 57 6), M G Pedersen 5 – D Bentley 8, D Dunn 7 (sub: B McCarthy, 46 8) – R Santa Cruz 7. Substitutes not used: J Brown, Z Khizanishvili. Booked: Tugay, Warnock, Bentley. Next: Reading (h).

Birmingham City 1 Jerome 68

(4-5-1): M Taylor 6 – S Kelly 5, J Djour-ou 5, L Ridgewell 5, F Queudrue 5 – S Larsson 4, F Muam-ba 5 (sub: W Palacios, 62, 5), O Kapo 7, M Nafti 7 (sub: N Danns, 73), G McSheffrey 6 (sub: G O’Connor, 62, 6) – C Jerome 7. Substitutes not used: R Kingson, R Schmitz. Booked: Jerome. Next: Manchester City (a).

Referee M Clattenburg
Attendance 19,316