Birmingham underlined their growing promotion credentials with a commanding 4-0 victory over 10-man Preston in the Sky Bet Championship at St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park.
Two goals from August Priske and one each for Liam Millar and Demarai Gray gave Chris Davies' men a third win in four games - and their first at home.
Preston, who played most of the second half with 10 men, remain rooted to the bottom of the table with just one victory after 10 matches.
Birmingham took the lead in the 33th minute when they cut the visitors wide open down the right as a first time, round-the-corner pass from Jay Stansfield freed Patrick Roberts.
The winger had time and space to roll a cross along the edge of the six-yard box for Millar to stroke home his second Blues goal.
The hosts then put the game out of reach with two goals in two first-half stoppage-time minutes.
Preston nodded off when referee Sam Allison dropped an uncontested ball at Alex Cochrane's feet and the left-back immediately curled a pass behind the defence for Priske to side-foot home in the second minute of added time.
Seconds later Jhon Solis dispossessed Jordan Thompson as North End tried to play out and poked the ball to Stansfield, who squared for Priske to curl home via a post from the edge of the box.
The Dane came close to a hat-trick soon after the restart when Millar sent over a dangerous cross from the left which Priske nodded goalwards from 12 yards, but too close to Daniel Iversen.
North End's plight became even worse 11 minutes after the restart when, having been booked at the start of the second half for a foul on Millar, Stan Mills lunged in on Cochrane and was shown a second yellow card.
Max Bird almost scored just a minute after coming on when Bright Osayi-Samuel's right-wing centre was headed up, but only as far as the penalty spot where the midfielder volleyed straight at the goalkeeper.
The former Bristol City man should have made it four with a quarter of an hour to go when Roberts picked him out from the right, but Bird could only head at Iversen.
The fourth did arrive in the 77th minute when Taylor Gardner-Hickman strode forward, laid off for Bird near the area, who in turn found Gray in the left side of the area. The Jamaica international checked inside and curled home his third of the season.
Birmingham's Chris Davies:
"I think he [Priske] has been great, what I always say is the first thing I ask of them is to do all the ugly bits of the game; the duels, the fighting, the scrapping and the running, the pressing and all that - which he will do.
"That's the only way he's going to play if he does that every game, but for number nines it's goals they live off and I know he's going to score goals because I've always said when you see it in training, with the technical side of their game, you can always see a finisher.
"He's got two good feet, makes good contact with the ball, has a good touch and can score headers because he's got the leap and the size."
Preston manager Graham Alexander:
"I'm hurt, obviously, the scoreline, the way the last five minutes of the first half went was a major blow.
"We were well in the game, I thought, we had opportunities in the first half, at 1-0 I still think there was a game there for us to win.
"But at 3-0 and the manner of the goals and the timing of the goals, it just takes the wind out of you.
"We were looking for a mentality in the second half, which I believe we got, but it became extremely difficult when we went down to 10."
Alexander was not too critical of Mills, adding: "If you've been booked away from home, a vociferous crowd, you stay on your feet after that and don't hurt your team. But he's a young player, we all make mistakes, his heart's in the right place."
