Goals from Robbie Savage, Clinton Morrison, Emile Heskey and Darren Anderton (or Heskey again?) saw Blues ease past their local rivals who look doomed already if this is the best they can serve up.
With Mario Melchiot still not fit, Blues fielded an unchanged side for the first time in a long while for this game, which was good to see. Darren Purse lined up against Blues for the first time since leaving in the summer, whilst Geoff Horsfield was on the Albion bench.
There was a bright opening to the game, and Blues were in front within 5 minutes. Just moments after waving away one appeal for a penalty, Mike Riley awarded a spot kick to the home side. The first one - Bernt Haas clearly fouled David Dunn - was probably more clearcut than the actual one that was awarded. Dunn bounced straight back up though, which perhaps meant that the referee was trying to play an advantage. No matter though, because seconds later Purse challenged Clinton Morrison in the area, and Riley did point to the spot. Whether or not it was to 'make up' for the previous one, only Mr Riley knows. Anyway, Savage stepped up, his international team-mate Andy Johnson offered some advice to Russell Hoult, and subsequently Hoult dived the wrong way as Savage scored.
Blues were clearly in control and Albion were clearly awful. Zoltan Gera did hit the crossbar with a speculative effort, but otherwise the visitors looked beyond clueless. It appeared that they were trying to defend a 1-0 defecit, with their massed ranks at the back, and playing Kanu as a lone target man is just ridiculous. The guy's a talented player if you utilise him properly, but hoofing balls at him all afternoon is not utilising him properly. Anyway, I digress... I also sense I've said similar things many times before about our own side...
After 23 minutes it was 2-0 thanks to free-scoring Morrison. The Irish striker appeared to be dying moments before his goal, as he moaned and whinged about something that had happened to his eye. It wasn't bad enough to prevent him from seeing Dunn take a quick free-kick to Darren Carter, however. As Carter drew the Albion defence towards him, the resurrected Morrison stormed into the area and was found by Carter, before finishing coolly.
It was 3-0 by the half hour mark with Emile Heskey capping off some excellent recent form with a goal. Dunn was again the architect, after initially losing the ball, only for Damien Johnson to retrieve it for him. Dunn then spotted Heskey's run in behind the defence, slipped a good ball through to him, and Heskey fired the ball low across Hoult into the far corner.
Before half-time Albion had a little spell of pressure, but in truth it was nothing remotely troubling for Blues, and was only really inspired by Jason Koumas, who wasn't even playing that well himself but still managed to stand out in the Albion team.
Whilst chatting with John Toshak at half-time, the Wales manager commented to me that he was surprised by Robert Earnshaw's omission from the Albion side. (I know name-dropping is an important part of this website!) Anyway, Bryan Robson brought on the dangerous Welsh forward at the break to replace Gera - a move that was greeted by boos and jeers from the travelling fans, who clearly feel that 6 matches in a job is sufficient and they can now get on the manager's back.
Earnshaw's introduction posed Blues some new problems, namely that now they had two strikers to deal with rather than just one. Fortunately neither Earnshaw nor Kanu did a lot and so it was a bit like a stroll in the park for the on-form duo of Kenny Cunningham and Matty Upson. Maik Taylor - who looked nervy again - did tip over a Neil Clement free-kick, but that was about Albion's lot.
With 10 minute to go, Blues made it 4-0. In all honesty, if Blues had tried for the final hour, and not eased off after they'd gone 3-0 up, then they may well have got 7 or 8, but let's not be greedy. The final goal came from some combination of Anderton and Heskey. Anderton had come on as a substitute for Johnson, and blasted a low free-kick goalwards. It ended up in the back of the net, via some form of deflection, but judging by the reaction of the players, that deflection was a neat flick by Heskey. Anderton isn't your typical loudmouth, cocky footballer in a lot of senses, and this was highlighted when the PA announced that he'd scored, but he waved his hand as if to say 'no I didn't - it wasn't my goal'. Whoever scored it, it made it 4-0.
And that was that. Blues fans became more interested in whether or not Horsfield would make an appearance, and sang 'Feed the Horse and he will score!', but Robson took no notice and left him as an unused substitute.
Also worth a mention is the performance of Carter, who was effective if not spectacular on his 21st birthday. He didn't really do too much, but one thing you have to give him credit for is that he is a real presence in the middle of the park, and he is your typical 'box to box' midfielder, which could benefit the side a lot if he keeps up his decent performances.
So, Blues continued their good record in derbies, but more importantly made it two consecutive wins. They fully deserved their win, but it was hard to gauge just how well Blues played, because their opponents were without doubt the poorest team that I've ever seen play at this level. Still, you can only beat what's in front of you, and Blues did that well.