The Officials where once again the talking point as fouls went unnoticed on both sides by the St Helens official Chris Foy with one, possibly two penalty appeals being ignored.
Bolton had the better of the early play with Jay-Jay Okocha and Kevin Davies going close in the first few minutes of the game with half chances and on 21 minutes where unlucky not to take the lead as the outstreched Kevin Nolan couldn't divert Ricardo Gardner's low cross past the on-loan Birmingham goalkeeper Maik Taylor.
Wanderers felt they should have had a penalty on the half hour mark when Kevin Davies had been fouled but appeals by the Bolton players where turned down, allowing the Midlands side to go to the other end of the field and open the scoring. David Dunn spread the ball to Stan Lazaridis on the left hand side and the Australian international's cross was met by striker Mikael Forssell who took advantage of a slip by ex-Blues defender Simon Charlton to fire the ball past Jussi Jaaskelainen in the Bolton goal in what was a rare Birmingham attack.
Three minutes later the home side could of gotten back into the game but Maik Taylor was quick to turn over a drive by Bolton striker Davies after he had been set up by the out of sorts Jay-Jay Okocha. Wanderers pushed and pushed but could not find a way through as Steve Bruce's side defended stoutly. The second half proved to be just as frustrating for the Trotters as their undefeated home record was about to be breached.
On 53 minutes Stelios Giannakopoulos was upended in the area but Foy once again turned down the appeals of what was a clear foul on the Greek international by the Blues defender and to the players amazement he was booked for diving.
On the hour supporters where appealing for the introduction of Brazilian striker Mario Jardel but once introduced even he couldn't find a way through. Minutes earlier fellow countryman Emerson Thome had made a last ditch tackle for Bolton on goalscorer Forssell who found himself in a one on one situation with fellow countryman Jaaskelainen in the Wanderers goal.
Jay-Jay Okocha had a half chance to bring Wanderers back into the game but there was no quality in the final third of the field and no creativity which looked like breaching the Birmingham rearguard. Even when Giannakopoulos saw his overhead kick sail past Taylor with 20 minutes left the goal was ruled out by Foy for offside.
Wanderers introduced Glen Little and Henrik Pedersen to try and claw a point back for the home side which would have been richly deserved but neither had time to make much of an impact on what was a Birmingham side happy to claim their slender and arguably undeserved one goal victory.
Despite the possessional advantage over the Midlands side there seemed to be a carefree attitude about some of the Bolton players, who without naming names failed to learn from last weekend's lesson at Manchester City. The play in the final third isnt productive and Bolton's play at the moment is all about keeping clean sheets rather than working on scoring goals, but scoring goals win football matches. Im not looking to point the finger but these players should put their heart and soul into playing for Bolton, we pay their wages and we support them throughout although it appears the club at certain levels at the moment is becoming very complacent.