Alex McLeish hails two-goal Birmingham hero Cameron Jerome

Birmingham boss Alex McLeish last night praised Cameron Jerome for maturing into a Premier League-class striker.

Jerome, 23, only scored seven times in the top-flight in 2007/2008 when City were relegated but he netted twice against Blackburn to take his tally to three goals.

And the forward was the key man as City recorded a fifth successive League win despite Ryan Nelson pulling a goal back late on.

McLeish said: “He was great tonight and I thought he was excellent.

“He is a work in progress.

“But I challenged him at the start of the season to improve and on tonight’s showing he was a fantastic centre forward in the Premier League.

“His first goal was a real poacher’s goal and the second goal was tremendous.”

He added: “I'm really proud of the players. It was a phenomenal performance and I thought we could have won by more. I thought we were fantastic tonight.”

Skipper Stephen Carr said of the club's unbeaten run: "It's massive for us. I've never had it in my career, it's unbelievable.

“But there's a certain number of points we need to stay safe and we just need to keep our feet on the ground.”

“We never make it easy but the lads stayed strong and we got our just rewards.”