JUST an average Saturday afternoon for Craig Bellamy. Back-page news in the morning for an alleged set-to with his new boss, by early evening he was being accused of illegally engineering the penalty that earned West Ham United an important, if extremely unglamorous, win at Birmingham City and scrapping with an opponent in the tunnel.

Alan Curbishley defended his summer signing on all three counts - no shouting match last weekend, didn’t know anything about an alleged shoving match with Mehdi Nafti postmatch, and no question that goalkeeper Colin Doyle has cleaned Bellamy out for the decisive spot kick. Steve Bruce wholeheartedly disagreed on the last point.

“When you see it on TV it’s arguable whether there’s any contact,” said the Birmingham manager. “The referee and linesman are 15 yards away from it and Bellamy jumps out of the road - he doesn’t want to be clattered by someone who is 6ft 4in. If there’s no contact and there’s no advantage to it because he can’t get the ball then why is it a penalty?” Because there had been contact, argued his opposite number.

“Bellamy got a touch on the ball and once the keeper comes and gets himself in that position it’s difficult; you’ve got to get contact on the ball and he never got it,” said Curbishley, who angrily knocked down reports that Bellamy had torn strips off him after the previous weekend. “Absolute nonsense,” he said. “There is an agenda out there and if I’m not the target, it’s the club.

“What can I do? I can’t say anything else other than it never happened and I can’t believe it came out.” Curbishley was not alone in his bemusement yesterday. The morning papers regaled City supporters with new shareholder Carson Yeung’s plans for “100 Chinese restaurants” in Birmingham and 10 football schools in China. The programme had co-president David Sullivan first assuring them the club would not be sold “until we think someone can do a better job of running BCFC than us” then berating them for being too few in number.

Their team was down in number, too, as Arsenal loanee Johan Djourou failed a prematch fitness test. For the Hammers, Jonathan Spector stayed at right back as the manager decided not to risk Lucas Neill and the newly acquired Kieron Dyer was rushed onto the wing after Freddie Ljungberg strained his groin in training. Within five minutes, Dyer was spitting abuse at Mark Halsey for not awarding a penalty when Stephen Kelly leaned on him in the area.

It was far from edifying stuff - Hayden Mullins booked for tugging back Sebastian Larsson and Bellamy running his studs down Liam Ridgewell’s shinpad. Mark Noble smuggled a 30-yard free kick through Birmingham’s wall and off an upright, Garry O’Connor a reverse header into Robert Green’s arms.

As the neutral observer began to wonder exactly how many Chinese restaurants Birmingham currently boasts, Radhi Jaidi half-volleyed through a congested penalty area and drew a fine save from Green.

No changes at half-time, but at least West Ham started to exert some pressure on goal.

Noble teed up Craig Bellamy for a shot that drifted marginally wide and Bobby Zamora knocked two chances off target. At the other end, they defended en masse, challenging Birmingham to attack. With three holding midfielders on and Bruce only prepared to switch Forssell for Gary McSheffrey, their reluctance to do so proved expensive.

Dyer finally managed to put Bellamy into the kind of space where he hurts defences, running beyond the centre-backs and at the keeper. Doyle came out to meet him, diving at feet and ball. Though the Irishman connected with both, Halsey’s linesman deemed the first contact illegal and West Ham had the spot kick. Noble sent Doyle the wrong way and his team into the lead.

Belatedly, Bruce added striker Cameron Jerome for the final quarter, yet Green’s sole moment of concern came when McSheffrey drove a long-range free kick under his defensive wall. Very much to type, Dyer spurned a far cleaner opportunity when left one-on-one as a poor game came to a poor end.

Bruce suggested his team had lost because of the big club-small club syndrome. “We have now had two decisions go against us in three games and they have cost us,” he said. “The big clubs always do seem to get the decisions against the small clubs and we’ve been on the end of two howlers in my opinion.

“I also felt we paid the penalty of three games in six days whereas West Ham hadn’t played since last weekend.”

Player ratings: Birmingham: Doyle 6, Parnaby 5, Jaidi 6, Ridgewell 6, Kelly 5, Larsson 5, Muamba 5 (Sadler, 80min), Nafti 5 (Jerome, 75min), Kapo 5, O’Connor 6, Forssell 6 (McSheffrey, 65min)

West Ham: Green 6, Spector 5 (Gabbidon, 86min), Upson 6, Ferdinand 6, McCartney 6, Dyer 6, Noble 7, Mullins 5, Etherington 6, Zamora 5, Bellamy 6