Bury 2 Birmingham City 4

By PHIL THORP BURY'S 'Blue Christmas' continued at Gigg Lane yesterday as Trevor Francis's Birmingham City hit the goal trail.

Hard on the heels of Boxing Day's dismal reverse at bottom club Crewe Alexandra the flu-hit Shakers had no answer to the cutting edge of City's quality strikeforce.

Two goals for Paul Furlong and one each for Dele Adebola and Martin O'Connor sank Neil Warnock's side and pushed the high-flying Blues into third place in the First Division table.

But the Shakers only had themselves to blame after being given a flying start by French striker Laurent D'Jaffo who rose high to convert a Chris Billy corner after 17 minutes.

That advantage was unceremoniously ripped from under the home side in the space of three minutes.

Firstly Furlong headed home a Gary Rowett's precision corner after 32 minutes then shortly afterwards O'Connor was allowed to race from midfield to the edge of the Shakers box before unleashing a fizzing 18-yarder that crept inside Dean Kiely's right hand post.

The second half started brightly for the home fans but after 55 minutes a magnificent 30-yard strike from Furlong gave Kiely no chance and effectively put the game beyond the Shakers.

As the Shakers chased the game former Crewe ace Adebola clinically headed home a fourth for the visitors with seven minutes left before D'Jaffo helped himself to his eighth goal of the campaign with a coolly taken penalty after Furlong had handled substitute Lutel James' goalbound effort.

Shakers boss Warnock refused to be downhearted after his side's third home defeat of the season and pointed to some brave performances from his stricken squad.

"The last few days have been horrific, we've had half-a-dozen or so on antibiotics, so I can't fault the lads I just told them to go out and do their best today.

"With Lennie Johnrose missing Dean Barrick did me a favour by playing because I didn't think either he or Nick Daws would have been fit.

"If we'd have shown the same commitment against Port Vale and Crewe we'd have won both those games.

"But overall we lost to a quality side and there were some great goals from their point of view.

"If we hadn't been on our game today we might have lost by seven, but we hung in superbly and showed what we've got.

Blues chief Trevor Francis was delighted with his side's three point haul.

"When you come to Bury you know what to expect," he said.

"Prior to the game they had picked up 28 points and 24 of them at home. That give you an indication of how strong they are at Gigg Lane.

"After the early setback, that really rocked us, we came back strongly and I was very pleased with our performance.

"Our fans were asking for seven goals again but they can't complain at four and even though Bury got a consolation there was no problem as we fully deserved our win." MATCH FACTS BURY: Kiely 7, Woodward 6, Williams 7, Daws 6, Lucketti 7, West 7, Swailes 6, Littlejohn 7, D'Jaffo 8, Billy 7, Barrick 6. Subs: James (for Barrick 70 mins), Preece and Ellis.

ATTENDANCE: 7,024.

REFEREE: Mr W. C. Burns (Scarborough).

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