Birmingham City made it three wins out of three in their China and Hong Kong tour with a convincing 2-0 win over Liaoning Hongyun.

Alex McLeish’s side comfortably controlled the game but, more importantly, a formidable strike partnership has been forged in the Far East between Garry O’Connor and new signing Nikola Zigic.

The aerial threat of the Serb, combined with O’Connor’s keen eye for goal in City’s opening pre-season campaign has proved problematic for defences. Liaoning Hongyun encountered similar difficulties.

The pair combined for City’s first goal in the 18th minute. Zigic flicked the ball into O’Connor’s path and the Scot neatly rounded the keeper and finished from a tight angle.

Zigic’s aerial presence was consistently troublesome for Liaoning, although the 6ft 7in striker may have been guilty of being over-zealous as he rattled Boubacar Diarra with a challenge that angered the Malian.

Birmingham added a second in the 38th minute via a superb volley from Sebastian Larsson. Craig Gardner’s pinpoint ball from central midfield found the Swede, who produced a deft lob which left the goalkeeper helpless.

Following six changes at half-time, City quickly regained control of proceedings and were able to dominate the game with large spells of possession.

Zigic and Kevin Phillips both had opportunities to add to City’s tally in the second half, but Cui Kai performed heroics in the Liaoning goal.

Aside from the result, McLeish would have every reason to be pleased with the displays from his centre midfield players, Gardner in particular, who could potentially pose a threat to Lee Boywer’s starting place next season.

Another confident performance was put in by winger Enric Valles, who signed from Dutch side NAC Breda this summer.

City are now due to return to England on Wednesday to continue their pre-season campaign.

Birmingham City: Taylor; Carr (Kerr 77), Johnson (Ridgewell 45), Dann, Parnaby (Murphy 45); Larsson (Mutch 45), Gardner (Bowyer 45), Michel (Ferguson 45), Valles (Fahey 60); O'Connor (Phillips 45), Zigic.