Two Cameron Jerome goals earned Blues a well deserved 2-1 victory over Blackburn at St. Andrew's and at the same time extended their winning run to a sensational five consecutive games.

The run of victories was also the best achieved by Blues in the top flight since the Francis and Latchford days of 1973.

McLeish elected to start with the same starting XI that had performed so successfully in Blues last four winning games.

There was no place in the Blackburn line-up for former Blues midfielder David Dunn who missed the game through injury.

On a crisp evening at St. Andrew's both sides started the game with a sense of purpose.

The first opportunity fell to Nikola Kalinic on the right of the Blues box, but the Blackburn man was unable to keep his fierce drive down and the ball fizzed high over Joe Hart's bar.

Having weathered some degree of pressure from their visitors Blues began to take greater control of the midfield and were starting to look a greater attacking threat.

And sure enough that threat told after just 12 minutes when Blues took the lead courtesy of striker Cameron Jerome.

Blues were awarded a corner on the right.

It was taken short by James McFadden to Seb Larsson and the Swede sent in a super cross to the far post.

Chucho headed it back towards the centre of the goal, where it deflected off Liam Ridgewell before falling to Jerome who was able to stab it home from no more than three yards out.

Then just a minute later Chucho was unlucky to see his close range shot blocked away for a corner.

A great piece of play saw Blues almost double their advantage on the 22 minute mark, but Chucho's effort was ruled out for offside.

To be fair to Blackburn, although it was mostly Blues on the attack Sam Allardyce's side were looking dangerous on the counter, but fortunately for Blues Stephen Carr was in the right place at the right time to block Steven Nzonzi's dangerous shot on his own six yard line.

Rovers boss Allardyce made an early substitution when Keith Andrews replaced Brett Emerton in the midfield, presumably because the Australian was carrying an injury.

Inevitably the game then took a bit of a lull after the frenetic early play.

But on 40 minutes it sparked back into life for Blues when Chucho went off on terrific attacking run down the left and looked as if was going double the score but his close range shot was blocked for another corner by Pascal Chimbonda.

A minute later Blackburn should have equalised when the ball bounced down in front of Kalinic inside the Blues six yard box, but the striker somehow conspired to kick the air instead of the ball!

With the break rapidly approaching Referee Mike Jones produced his first yellow card of the night when Steven Nzonzi was penalised for a reckless challenge on Liam Ridgewell.

Half time: Blues 1 Blackburn 0

The was no resting on their laurels for Blues who came out for the second half with renewed positivity and within three minutes of the restart they made it 2-0.

It was that man Jerome again who did the damage as he netted his second goal of the night.

But it was great build up play on the right which created it.

Seb Larsson directed a neat flick over the top to Stephen Carr.

Carr bombed down the right before pulling the ball back from the by-line towards the penalty spot for a waiting Jerome to clinically slide the ball home past Paul Robinson in the Blackburn goal.

Jerome was understandably ecstatic in his celebrations as he rushed towards the Blues fans in the Tilton Road and for this gesture he was booked.

Allardyce sought to get his team back into the game by making his second change of the game with just 54 minutes on the clock.

El Hadji Diouf was withdrawn from the action, to be replaced by Junior Hoilett.

Jerome made yet another powerful run down the right but this time his path was blocked just as he got into his stride by Ryan Nelsen who was yellow carded.

Blues were playing some great first touch football now and the crowd were responding in kind with their vocal support.

Totally against the run of play Blackburn found themselves back in the game on 69 minutes through a Ryan Nelsen goal.

Morten Gamst Pederson swung in a free kick of Seb Larsson proportions to the far post, where it found Chimbonda.

Chimbonda headed the ball goalwards, but Joe Hart made a fantastic save to deny him.

Unfortunately the ball dropped directly to the incoming Nelsen who made no mistake in drilling the ball home from close range. 2-1 Blues.

Substitution number three for Bolton was made a matter of seconds later as South African forward Benni McCarthy came on for the largely ineffectual Jason Roberts.

Having found themselves somewhat surprisingly back in the game, Blackburn began to throw everything forward in search of an equaliser.

But as a result it was leaving them open to the counter attack.

On 83 minutes Alex McLeish made his first change when James McFadden was replaced by Keith Fahey.

With the game entering its final five minutes the crowd were on the feet following a sensational break by Blues.

Chucho burst forward from his own half shoulder to shoulder with Chimbonda.

Chucho's superior speed told and he left Chimbonda in his wake before passing to Jerome, whose shot which was well saved by Robinson.

It fell back into the path of Jerome who squared it again to Chucho. Unfortunately the Ecuadorian was unable to keep his shot down and it rebounded back off the bar.

Deep into stoppage time Kalinic came came close for Blackburn with a close range header, which was blocked on the line by Larsson's face.

Then with moments remaining, Blues broke from a Blackburn corner and Robinson was forced to produce another great save to deny Larsson from eight yards.

Full time: Blues 2 Blackburn 1

Blues: Joe Hart, Stephen Carr, Lee Bowyer, Liam Ridgewell, Sebastian Larsson, Cameron Jerome, Chucho, Barry Ferguson, Roger Johnson, Scott Dann, James McFadden (Keith Fahey, 83).
Subs not used: Maik Taylor, Kevin Phillips, Gary McSheffrey, James O'Shea, Lee Carsley, Gregory Vignal.Goals: Jerome (12, 48)

Bookings: Cameron Jerome (49)

Blackburn: Paul Robinson, Christopher Samba, Gael Givet, Ryan Nelson, Brett Emerton (Keith Andrews, 23), Jason Roberts (Benni Mccarty, 70), Morten Gamst Pedersen, Steven Nzonzi, El Hadji Diouf (Junior Hoilett, 54), Nikola Kalinic, Pascal Chimbonda.
Subs not used: Jason Brown, Lars Jacobsen, Franco Di Santo, Michel Salgado.

Bookings: Steven Nzonzi (45), Nelsen (58).

Download a free copy of the teamsheet here Blues v Blackburn teamsheet

Referee: Mike Jones (Cheshire)

Attendance: 23,187 (Away supporters 689)