Birmingham 3 Sheffield Wed 0

A paltry crowd of less than 15,000 watched Birmingham beat Sheffield Wednesday 3-0 in the FA Cup fifth round.

Those who were on hand saw Blues go through thanks to goals from Jean Beausejour, Obafemi Martins and David Murphy.

With the Carling Cup final only eight days away, manager Alex McLeish predictably made several changes to the team from Tuesday's defeat against Newcastle.

Goalkeeper Ben Foster, Sebastian Larsson, Craig Gardner, David Bentley and Nikola Zigic were all benched while Liam Ridgewell, Barry Ferguson and Martin Jiranek were all absent.

Colin Doyle got the nod in goal, with Murphy and Stuart Parnaby slotting into defence.

Lee Bowyer, Beausejour, Alexander Hleb and Keith Fahey started in midfield, while Cameron Jerome was paired for the first time with Martins up front.

On the opposing team, Clinton Morrison returned to St Andrew's as Wednesday captain and was cheered by the home fans, most probably for his two goals in Second City derbies during the Steve Bruce era.

An error by Reda Johnson brought the game's opening goal after just six minutes, as Jerome pounced on the loose ball, finding Hleb on the left wing.

The Belarus international slipped Bowyer into the box and Beausejour tapped his pass into the net from close range.

Morrison then nodded wide a superb Gary Teale free-kick and Roger Johnson made an excellent last ditch tackle to deflect Neil Mellor's shot just wide.

Fahey later saw a superb free-kick clawed away by goalkeeper Nicky Weaver, after James O'Connor had fouled Jerome on the edge of the box.

But Martins made it 2-0 with an altogether more simple move 13 minutes in, beating Michael Morrison to another loose ball in midfield.

The Nigeria international then sprinted past Johnson to slot the ball underneath Weaver for his first-ever Blues goal.

O'Connor was then shown the game's first yellow card for a rash challenge on Hleb, which left the Barcelona loanee unable to continue the match with David Bentley coming on in his place.

Johnson and Jerome both put decent chances wide in the final minutes of the first-half and Wednesday's Tommy Spurr went into the referee's notebook, for a foul on Beausejour.

There was still time for Mellor to miss a huge chance, falling to connect with Daniel Jones' left wing cross, before Bentley fired wide from a good position in stoppage time.

Both teams made changes at half-time, with Kevin Phillips replacing Jerome for Blues while Morrison and O'Connor were replaced by Mark Beevers and Liam Palmer.

Shortly after the restart, Palmer shot straight at Doyle with virtually his first touch, before Fahey forced a slightly more athletic save from Weaver in the opening minutes of the second half.

But Murphy made it 3-0 on 53 minutes from a corner kick, although Weaver appeared to have been fouled in the build up.

And Martins missed a gilt-edged chance for his second minutes later, inexplicably putting Bentley 's superb centre over the bar from less than five yards out.

Mellor then saw a decent close range chance blocked out in a crowded penalty box midway through the second-half and Phillips guided a lofted shot just wide of the far post from the edge of the box.

Beevers and Roger Johnson were both booked midway through a slightly niggly second-half.

Mellor then nodded a good chance wide from Teale's teasing cross with less than 10 minutes remaining, while Reda Johnson was shown his side's fourth yellow card for upending Bentley late on.

Isaiah Osbourne headed just over in stoppage time from Jones' impeccably placed cross in the final action of the game.