Birmingham manager Lee Clark praised the contribution of veteran midfielder Hayden Mullins who scored the winning goal in their 1-0 victory over Leeds.
Mullins turned in a commanding all-round performance to help City climb to 10th in the Championship, their highest place since last September.
The win was only Birmingham's third at home this year and Clark reserved special praise for Mullins, who netted his second goal of the season after 19 games out on his 550th league appearance.
"I plumped for experience on this occasion," said Clark.
"I thought that the way Leeds were playing with a new manager I just wanted an older head to look after the likes of (Ross) McCormack and he did it well.
"I didn't include Hayden to be the match winner but it was a good occasion to celebrate his 550th game.
"It was a terrific win so far as I am concerned and I'm delighted with the three points and a clean sheet.
"We played really well in the first half although we became a little sloppy at the start of the second period.
"But we then got the goal and kicked on from there and in the last ten minutes we had further chances to kill off the game.
"The youngsters in the side have given me a huge boost but the frustrating thing for me is that if we had not messed around in the early part of the season and got three positive results they could have taken us into the play-off spots.
"Ultimately I had to give the players who did so well last season an opportunity to repeat the feat.
"For whatever reason it could not be repeated and I had to go down the route of using the younger players just before Christmas."
