There, that wasn’t really so painful, was it? One minute you can be in despair, virtually requiring suicide watch as the dark world of relegation reality envelopes you. The next, you are nine months from the Premier League. Speaking of which, Aston Villa and West Brom obligingly suffered defeats yesterday, too, to really send the Blue-noses home content. If they had set out to engineer a mood swing, Alex McLeish’s team can scarcely have begun more convincingly. “I’m happy with the result but we can play even better,” the manager promised. “He’d presumably be even happier if more than yesterday’s 17,413 turn up next time to watch the early league leaders.

Though a four-game winning start to the season in all competitions, a feat last achieved by the club 11 years ago, bodes well for Blues yesterday’s stroll will not be their most rigorous examination. The statisticians among their supporters will know that, of the 30 clubs relegated from the elite in the past decade, only six — including City themselves in 2007 — have returned on the rebound. To a significant extent, that is because of enforced sale of players. While McLeish has lost the likes of Fabrice Muamba and Mikael Forsell, his summer intake includes Kevin Phillips and Lee Carsley, and both were effective in their contrasting ways yesterday.

Phillips enjoyed that rare experience, a place in the starting line-up, and offered swift thanks to his gaffer with a headed opener after right-back Stuart Parnably had swung a cross into his vision. “He just knows where to be,” reflected McLeish, who prophesied that the striker “would do everything to keep himself in the game for another three or four years”. Carsley, meanwhile, was a galvanising influence in midfield, just as he was for so many years at Everton.

With Phillips starting in tandem with Garry O’Connor, James McFadden was deployed just behind the striking pair. Though his creative instincts came more to the fore, the forward was still desperate to open his account for the season. He demonstrated that desire with a spectacular overhead kick from outside the area which just went the wrong side of a post. Then he linked with Parnaby but shot straight at goalkeeper Luke Steele before curling another opportunity just over the bar.

From amongst McLeish’s multi-faceted squad there was another name on everyone’s lips here. Fortunately for everyone, Quincy Owusu-Abeyie, a Ghanaian-Dutchman who is on loan from Spartak Moscow, prefers to be known as simply Quincy. He was an electric presence in the home midfield, and McLeish enthused: “He’s so exciting — not just quick, but he has a trick. He doesn’t just run up blind alleys. He can see pictures.” One of those was apparently O’Connor’s head. He placed the ball expertly on it just before the interval for City’s second.

Birmingham did not look totally secure at the back, though. Five minutes before the interval, Diego Leon struck the bar from outside the area. That apart, there was no real suggestion from Barnsley that they would ever extract even a point. The Tykes may have applied weed killer to the Chelsea show last season, having already buried Liverpool at Anfield in the FA Cup, but they look like relegation fodder.

Their manager Simon Davey brought on a forward, Kayode Odejayi, for a defender, Bobby Hassell, at the break to augment his team’s striking power, and on one foray, Odejayi nodded the ball back for captain Brian Howard to strike, but Maik Taylor saved with his foot. Martin Devaney also spurned a decent opportunity but City continued to impose themselves. McFadden was particularly frustrated when his drive from the left was turned away by Steele, who a minute later foiled Gary McSheffrey. The Scot’s goals will come. And with them, on this evidence, an immediate return to the elite for Birmingham.

BIRMINGHAM: Maik Taylor 7, Parnaby 7 (Kelly 36min, 7), Martin Taylor 6, Ridgewell 6, Murphy 6, Larsson 7, Carsley 8, McFadden 7, Owusu-Abeyie 7, O’Connor 7 (Bent h-t, 6), Phillips 7 (McSheffrey 67min)

BARNSLEY: Steele 6, Hassell 5 (Odejayi h-t, 6), Moore, Foster 6, Souza 5, Howard, 7, Teale 6, Devaney 6 (Mostto 72min), Leon 7, El Haimour 6, Macken 7

Star man: Lee Carsley (Birmingham)
Referee: R Beeby
Attendance: 17,413