OVER FOR ZOLA
Italian claims first Blues win after 11 games in job
Aluko’s left-footed cross, but his glancing effort flashed wide across goal.
The game-changing moment arrived on 68 minutes when Fredericks lunged in on Gardner and referee Andrew Madley produced a red card.
With Fulham exposed, Blues left-back Cheick Keita immediately looked to push forward and it was his touch on from which Che Adams went close in the 70th minute.
And five minutes later Davis’s through ball released Keita on the left wing, and his low cross was turned in from close range by Jutkiewicz.
Jutkiewicz almost added a spectacular second on 82 minutes, when Gardner’s deflected free-kick sat up nicely for him, but his overhead kick was tipped over by David Button.
Fulham threw caution to the wind in search of an equaliser, and it nearly paid off in the third minute of stoppage time when Floyd Ayite found space in the middle but he sliced wide.
And boss Slavisa Jokanovic admitted: “In general we didn’t play our best game. Birmingham were more solid, and won all the second balls.
“We didn’t combine well enough and didn’t create too many things. Having Ryan sent off was the situation which killed us but we didn’t create enough to change the game.
“The red card was clearly a setback for our intentions in the game. We tried to find a solution, but we didn’t have a good game.
“Our intention was to win the game [and continue our winning run] but we did not play well enough to do that and the end result was fair.”