Ex-Saint Maik Taylor handed Pompey a survival lifeline as he was sent off for the second time this season.

Birmingham keeper Taylor, who helped Saints complete The Great Escape in 1997, was given his marching orders at Fratton Park in controversial circumstances after a bizarre mix up with centre back Martin Taylor on the stroke of half-time.

A long punt from Linvoy Primus was headed back by defender Taylor, but namesake Maik was already out of his area and got his fingertips to the ball, which Yakubu slid home for what he thought was his fourth goal in as many games.

But Orpington-based referee Barry Knight gave Taylor a straight red card for handling the ball outside of his area and blew up immediately, which meant that Yakubu's goal could not stand.

When Dejan Stefanovic, a 33-1 shot to score the first goal, curled the resulting 25-yard free kick in off the far post, it looked as though it was Pompey's day after all.

But Pompey's record signing had to wait several minutes before scoring his third goal of the season because of an Eyal Berkovic-led protest against the decision to deny Pompey a goal.

A clash with Kenny Cunningham followed - but only the Birmingham captain was booked.

Redknapp added: "Kenny's a great lad but he thought that Eyal was trying to get one of their players sent off which was not the case, Eyal just wanted the goal to stand."

Pompey deserved their half-time lead.

Maik Taylor, who once played as a striker for Petersfield Town, kept his side in the game when he tipped over an Amdy Faye header from Berkovic's inswinging free-kick midway through the first half.

That was all Taylor had to do before the mix-up with his namesake, but all Pompey's approach play lacked was a good final ball.

Redknapp had named the same side that finished the Easter Saturday draw at Charlton with Lomana Lua Lua and Berkovic, who were second half substitutes at the Valley, both irrepressible.

At one stage it took three Birmingham defenders to snuff out Lua Lua inside the area but in the second half, and with the visitors down to ten men, Pompey always looked likely to make it three wins in four games.

With extra space to exploit Yakubu and Lua Lua were irresistible.

When 23-year-old Lua Lua learns how to avoid the offside trap he will be twice as dangerous, but his pace was too much for Cunningham.

After picking the ball up on the half way line, he left the Birmingham skipper in his wake before accelerating into the penalty area, only to see his attempted pass towards Yakubu blocked.

No matter, it fell kindly back at the feet of the Newcastle man, who drilled home his third Pompey goal with his left peg on 63 minutes.

"I'm proud of my left foot, I'm working on it a lot at the moment and sometimes you need a bit of luck," he said.

At 2-0 Pompey were coasting but were punished for an inexplicable drop in concentration within a few minutes of Lua Lua's goal, when Stern John was allowed to turn two defenders on the edge of the six-yard box and poke the ball beyond his Trinidad and Tobago teammate Shaka Hislop.

With a comeback suddenly on the cards, Birmingham poured forward but were hit on the counter attack by Yakubu within five minutes of reducing the arrears.

After receiving the ball from the ubiquitous Berkovic, Yakubu accelerated past Cunningham and then stepped up to take the penalty after the visitors' captain handled his left footed cross.

Confirmation of Yakubu's brimful confidence came when the Nigerian rolled the ball past Ian Bennett for his 11th goal of the season and his fourth in as many games.

After that it was a case of how many for Pompey.

It should have been four but another Taylor, Matthew, drilled the ball wide when put clean through in injury time.