United boss Brian McDermott spoke of his side's effective style of play on Saturday after recording a third win in four games.

Goals from Matt Smith, Danny Pugh and an own goal from Paul Caddis led to United securing a 3-1 victory at St. Andrew’s for the first time in a league game since 1982.

“Sometimes the first halves of games can be a war of attritions. The first half was a little bit like that on Saturday,” said the manager. “We have now had three wins out of four and they were against teams that are absolutely fighting for their lives at the bottom of the table.

“We played Nottingham Forest on Easter Monday and we came in for a lot of criticism after that game. I went home and watched the game back and we must have had 60% possession in that game.

“But it was ineffective possession. We were playing in our own half and playing in front of them. We passed the ball nicely but we didn’t create anything, on Saturday we create chances. I thought that Matt Smith caused Birmingham allsorts of problems up front.

“I thought that once we got the second goal we started to play some really decent stuff.”

The first half on Saturday ended goalless and the United manager spoke about the importance of staying in the game to give yourself a chance.

“It is about a lot of things, it’s not just about quality moments,” said the boss. “It is also about knowing how to win.

“There have been too many times this season where we haven’t stayed in the game. We’ve given a goal away and then given away another. We did it against Forest the other day.

“I guarantee that if you stay in games you have got every opportunity of winning them.

“We got a really good result and I hope that our fans behind the goal had a really good night on Saturday.”