Birmingham City were comfortable 4-1 winners over Millwall in Saturday’s FA Cup third round encounter.
The Blues may have been suffering goal shortages in the league, prompting the search for new strikers, but Matt Derbyshire staked his claim at the Den with a brace. Davd Murphy and sub Cameron Jerome also got on the scoresheet in what was ultimately a stroll for the Premier League side, Danny Schofield getting a late consolation for Millwall.
James Henry, Danny Shittu and Steve Morison all failed to take advantage of early chances for the Championship side and were punished clinically by on-loan Olympiacos man Derbyshire 17 minutes in.
Jean Beausejour sent the former Blackburn front man away down the right and he beat Millwall goalkeeper David Forde to it and chipped to the net from 20 yards.
Tony Craig took retribution on Derbyshire for that goal ten minutes later by sending him tumbling to the ground 20 yards out, however the Birmingham man had the last laugh when team-mate Murphy stepped up and bent a super free-kick around the Millwall wall and home for 2-0.
Alex McLeish’s men then looked to finish things off, with Forde’s fingers stung by another long range free from Alexander Hleb before his defence prevented Derbyshire from pouncing on the rebound.
Henry volleyed wide from 30 yards in a rare Millwall rebuke, but their hopes of a comeback were ended before half-time when Craig Gardner took advantage of lame Lions defending to play Derbyshire through and he finished well again from eight yards.
Henry went down under a Scott Dann challenge early in the second half as Millwall were awarded a penalty, but even from 12 yards they could not catch a break as Maik Taylor easily parried Morison’s weak kick and Murphy completed the clearance.
Dann cleared a Henry effort off the line to maintain Taylor’s clean sheet and Neil Harris blazed the rebound over, before Jerome came off the bench to complete the Birmingham scoring.
He, Kevin Phillips and Keith Fahey replaced Derbyshire, Nikola Zigic and Hleb, and Fahey provided the latest assist with a fine cross that Jerome headed beyond Forde for the fourth.
Millwall’s Schofield, off the bench for Harris, took down Kevin Lisbie’s pass and rammed the ball beyond Taylor from 12 yards in stoppage-time for his side's sole goal.