BOLO ZENDEN'S Carling Cup heroics were quickly forgotten last night when the Middlesbrough star was sent off in a crushing 3-1 defeat at Birmingham City.

The Dutchman's match-winning penalty at the Millennium Stadium on Sunday was in stark contrast to his nightmare return to Premiership action at St Andrews.

Zenden was handed his second yellow card of the night - his first was for a tackle on Robbie Savage - after a foul on Damien Johnson with just three minutes remaining and his personal misery summed up a disappointing evening for the new cup holders.

The winger was one of eight players booked by card-happy referee Rob Styles, who could quite easily have dismissed Birmingham's Savage when the score was goalless.

The good, the bad and the ugly of Savage was on show because it was his sensational free-kick 12 minutes into the second half that put the Blues two goals clear.

But it was the two-footed lunge from the fiery Welshman - never sent off in his career, despite his bad-boy reputation - into Danny Mills early on which incensed both boss Steve McClaren and Mills.

Shortly after that incident Ashington-born Martin Taylor gave City the lead when he deflected Mikael Forssell's shot past Mark Schwarzer.

Savage added the second before Boro's Szilard Nemeth sweetly struck his first goal in nearly two months to close the gap.

However, Forssell cemented victory with 11 minutes remaining to extend seventh-placed Birmingham's gap over Boro to eight points.

McClaren refused to blame the referee, he said: "You can make all the excuses in the world about the decisions, but we are disappointed in our reaction to the high of Sunday.

"Football is like that and you can never get carried away with the highs just like you can't get too unhappy with the lows.

"We have got 12 games left and we have to make sure that we turn in better performances.

"It was always going to be a difficult game and we have no excuses. We did not help ourselves.

"We defended poorly and that's normally our strong point. We got too many bookings and the sending off, we can't afford them at this stage of the season.''

McClaren gave two of his most high-profile players, Juninho and Gaizka Mendieta, a night off following their super showing in Cardiff at the weekend, a decision he was left to rue.

Their places went to Michael Ricketts and Jonathan Greening, while Stewart Downing was given a recall at the expense of Doriva.

Allowing some of their best players a night off was not something enjoyed by Blues boss Steve Bruce who had only 16 fit players available and one of those on the injury list was Christophe Dugarry.

Even without Dugarry, and two of their other most creative talents, David Dunn and Stan Lazaridis, Birmingham were still able to exploit gaping gaps in the Boro defence.

Olivier Tebily and Savage had already had shots off target before they began to take a grip.

The tigerish Savage played a delightful through ball to Clinton Morrison who, in behind the Boro defence, took a touch before rifling left-footed into the side-netting.

It was far too easy for the home side to break down their opponents and they were looking every bit a side who had not lost in the league since January 7.

And, on 23 minutes, Birmingham were well on their way to extending that run when they opened the scoring in fortuitous manner.

Savage's quick free-kick put Hughes clear down the line before he cut a pass back to Forssell, whose shot was deflected past Schwarzer by the back of former Darlington loanee Taylor.

Apart from a couple of lively Downing runs, Boro deserved to go behind and their situation could have been a lot worse had Schwarzer not been in such good form.

The towering Aussie, clearly still in the sort of mood that clinched cup victory at the Millennium Stadium, made two fantastic stops before the interval.

First, Schwarzer was on hand to block a drive from Hughes from ten yards after Morrison had picked the left-midfielder out at the back post.

And then former Sunderland target Morrison's clinical first-time shot on the turn was expertly tipped over the bar by the Boro keeper.

Referee Styles blew his whistle for 12 Boro fouls in the opening half and it was one of those which led to Zenden following Mills and Savage into the official's notebook.

McClaren's reaction to an anaemic first-half display was to drag off both the ineffective and the unfortunate, Joseph Job and Downing, for Massimo Maccarone and Doriva.

Boro's response to the changes was just what McClaren would have demanded, albeit temporarily, as four minutes after the restart Zenden's free-kick from the left sparked a goalmouth scramble before the ball fell perfectly to Ugo Ehiogu.

But Ehiogu somehow contrived to shoot wide from inside six yards.

That proved costly for Boro, as not long afterwards Mr Styles, George Boateng and Savage combined to dent the away side's hopes further. After Doriva's foul on Stephen Clemence, Boateng complained and was yellow carded for his protests. To add insult to injury, the ball was brought forward ten yards and Savage's curling free-kick beat Schwazrer.

Boro, having introduced Nemeth, responded with their best spell of the game and with 15 minutes to go the Slovakian struck right-footed past Maik Taylor.

But that joy was short-lived when Johnson's right-wing cross fell to Forssell at the back post and he put his 13th goal of the season past Schwarzer.

On this form McClaren will have to ask for more from his players if they are to cap off a memorable campaign by finishing higher than the ninth place secured by Bryan Robson's men five years ago.

Result: Birmingham City 3 Middlesbrough 1.

Read more about Middlesbrough here.