QUEENS PARK RANGERS’ return to the Midlands did not go as planned as they went down 1-0 to Birmingham, who went top of the Championship after this win.

The R’s dumped their opponent’s local rivals Aston Villa out of the Carling Cup last week but they couldn’t repeat the feat at St Andrews today, with veteran Kevin Phillips getting the only goal of the game.

Iain Dowie’s men now haven’t won in four league games and seemed to lack the creativity needed after the manager went for experience, picking Mikele Leigertwood and Patrick Agyemang ahead of Daniel Parejo and Emmanuel Ledesma.

Birmingham thought they had got off to a great start when Liam Ridgewell, who was a QPR fan as a boy, opened the scoring in the second minute.

Former Arsenal man Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, now known just as Quincy, whipped in a teasing cross and Ridgewell out-jumped QPR keeper Radek Cerny to put the ball in the back of the net.

But the former Aston Villa centre-half used his hand and received a yellow card for his trickery.

The home team looked dangerous going forward, in particular down the left through Quincy, who has signed on loan from Russian side Spartak Moscow.

But Rangers have a handy left winger themselves in Lee Cook and the former Fulham man will know he should have done better when the ball fell to him on the edge of the box, but his shot went straight into the arms of Maik Taylor.

The Birmingham keeper should have been tested again minutes later when Damien Delaney broke through after a neat flick from Agyemang.

But the full-back didn’t shoot himself and opted to lay the ball off to skipper Martin Rowlands, who optimistically hit the ball first-time and his effort went comfortably over.

After terrorising Peter Ramage for the first half-hour, Quincy switched to the right flank and almost immediately crossed for Kemy Agustien, but his header was easily saved by Cerny.

Leigertwood had a long-ranged shot minutes later but his curling effort went wide.

That was quickly followed by another strike from Gavin Mahon and although he struck it well, it was way off target.

Just as QPR seemed to be taking the upper hand, Quincy popped up again and slipped through Sebastian Larsson but Cerny did well to dive at his feet.

The Swedish midfielder was behind the Rangers defence again minutes later but Damion Stewart recovered in time to block the shot.

The game was set to go in to half-time level but Birmingham’s Scotland international Gary O’Connor beat the offside trap, and while Stewart was busy appealing to the linesman, Phillips beat Leigertwood to the cross to send his side in ahead at the break.

There was nothing to separate the two teams and Alex McLeish will feel fortunate to go in ahead.

But the home team definitely started the second period the better and full-back David Murphy almost extended his team’s lead when Phillips knocked the ball down to him on the edge of the error but his effort just went over.

QPR could not get the ball off their opponents after the re-start and they were thankful to their keeper when he made a great stop from Radhi Jaidi’s header, which was creeping into the corner.

Rangers were unable to venture into their opponents half until ten minutes after the restart but when they did Cook showed he was in no mood to give up just yet.

The wide man created his side’s first chance of the half when he somehow crossed for Blackstock, but the former Southampton striker was penalised for climbing over Ridgewell.

Dowie tried to find the spark needed by bringing on Akos Buzsaky and Ledesma but to no evail.

One of the problems for the R’s was the strength of the Birmingham bench.

They must have felt relieved to see the back of the deadly duo Phillips and Quincy, before seeing their replacements – Scotland international James McFadden and Cameron Jerome.

Neither keeper was really tested in the last 20 minutes as the game fizzled out.

Birmingham could have grabbed a second at the death when McFadden burst down the right and found himself two-on-one with Jerome, but as he switched the ball, a returning Matt Connolly intercepted knocking it back to Cerny, who eventually gathered after clattering into Jerome.