Last updated on .From the section Championship

Home-grown midfielder Ben Thompson had never scored more than one goal in a game for Millwall before Wednesday night

Two well-taken Ben Thompson goals helped Millwall move away from the relegation places as they won at Birmingham City.

The midfielder stroked home his first from 15 yards after a great counter-attack and pass from Lee Gregory, before the same combination saw Thompson unmarked in the box to slot past Lee Camp.

Connor Mahoney had a goal disallowed for Birmingham early in the second half while Craig Gardner volleyed just over as Blues started brightly.

Substitutes Jacques Maghoma and Lukas Jutkiewicz both had efforts miss the target as Garry Monk's side tried to get back into the game.

Extra security measures were put in place by Birmingham following Sunday's derby loss to Aston Villa, when a fan ran on to the pitch and attacked Villa's Jack Grealish.

Between Thompson's two goals Millwall could have had another as Gary Gardner's poor backpass was intercepted by Ben Marshall, but his lob over Camp was just wide of the post.

Millwall go above Reading and Wigan into 19th place in the Championship, but remain just a point clear of the final relegation place after Rotherham won 2-1 at QPR.

Birmingham drop to 12th and have have won just one of their last seven home games - a run stretching back to 29 December.

Birmingham City manager Garry Monk:

"We're in a sticky patch. A lot of hard work has gone into the season and that needs to be cemented with a strong finish.

"I'm hugely disappointed, we were well below the levels we are capable of. After an initial bright start, it was full of errors and it proved costly.

"It was poor, too many mistakes, too many individual errors. You cannot make those mistakes and expect to come back and get a result."

Millwall boss Neil Harris told BBC Radio London:

"It was a strong performance, we came out the right side of key moments, had a couple of counters and scored well, had a couple of opportunities on goal and an offside which went our way.

"Recently they've not gone for us, but tonight was a really professional performance, looked solid and reliable.

"We picked a team to frustrate Birmingham, to shore up the gaps, and we knew that they scored a lot of goals from their front two and we thought it was important to have Ryan Tunnicliffe as a third centre-half for a bit of protection."