[11] In contrast to the previous season, just one win from the last eleven games gave Birmingham a tenth-place finish, six points behind city rivals Aston Villa, who had been struggling against relegation at the turn of the year.
[10][12] In Birmingham's first game of the season, they beat Tottenham Hotspur 1–0 at St Andrew's, courtesy of a debut goal by record signing David Dunn, who converted a penalty awarded for Anthony Gardner's foul on Robbie Savage.
Both sides finished with ten men: Sylvain Legwinski received a second yellow card for tripping Dunn and Darren Purse was sent off for "aiming a punch at" Luis Boa Morte after he scored Fulham's second goal.
[18] A 2–0 win at home to Portsmouth on 27 September with goals from Stephen Clemence and Stan Lazaridis gave Birmingham their best ever start to a league season and moved them fourth in the table.
[19] Manchester United inflicted Birmingham's first league defeat of the season, winning 3–0 at Old Trafford after goalkeeper Maik Taylor was sent off by Mike Dean for fouling Paul Scholes.
[21] Having lost both Second City derbies in 2002–03, Aston Villa held out for a goalless draw at St Andrew's "in a game high on energy but desperately low on quality".
[22] A fine save by Taylor from Bolton Wanderers' Kevin Davies helped Birmingham keep another clean sheet and a well-worked goal by Forssell gave them a fifth win of the season.
[29] In Dugarry's absence with a knee injury, Clinton Morrison made his first league start for eight months and scored the opening goal in a match in which two opponents were sent off: Leicester City's captain, Matt Elliott, for an arm in Dunn's face in the first half and their goalkeeper, Ian Walker, after an hour for handling the ball a long way outside his penalty area.
[30] Manchester City took an early lead at St Andrew's on Boxing Day, and despite pressure from Birmingham it took two fortunate goals in the last ten minutes – Jeff Kenna headed home the rebound after Savage's free kick struck the goalpost, and Richard Dunne's attempted clearance bounced in off Forssell – to secure the three points.
[31] Against Everton at Goodison Park, when Taylor was "jostled" by both Duncan Ferguson and Alan Stubbs, no foul was given, and Wayne Rooney scored the only goal of the match;[32] the defeat left Birmingham ninth in the table.
[11] With a defence disrupted by injury – midfielder Darren Carter, making his first start of the season, was one of three players used at left back in the first 40 minutes – Birmingham conceded three times to Tottenham Hotspur in the first half.
[34] At Stamford Bridge, PA Sport's reporter highlighted Birmingham's incredible tenacity, Savage and Clemence "excelling in central midfield as they outplayed, let alone outfought, their far more illustrious opponents" to record another goalless draw with Chelsea, helped by Olivier Tebily's acrobatic clearance off the line after a rare error by Maik Taylor.
[39] Birmingham came back from 2–0 down at Villa Park to draw the Second City derby; the equaliser came in the fourth minute of stoppage time when Morrison's shot was parried and Stern John "thrashed the loose ball into the roof of the net".
[46] Two weeks after Maik Taylor's loan from Fulham was made permanent,[47] his goalkeeping was instrumental in Birmingham's goalless draw with his former club; the result left them in sixth place.
[54] With Cunningham suspended, Savage captained the team for the visit to Blackburn Rovers; Stern John's late equaliser secured a 1–1 draw away and a tenth-place finish, six points short of European qualification.