NK Maribor 1, Birmingham City 2.

AN historic evening for Birmingham City that was all set to be nothing but an horrific one.

Not least for Colin Doyle, who did an Enckelman as Blues Europa League dreams appeared to be heading down a rocky road to ruin.

Doyle’s airshot at a poor, dinked backpass by Jonathan Spector handed the Slovenian league leaders the initiative.

But as Blues rather laboured in response as the Group H match wore on, they suddenly struck through Chris Burke in the 64th minute and forced their will on their hosts to devastating effect.

Wade Elliott plundered the winner with an opportunist 20-yarder with 11 minutes to go and Blues completed a remarkable recovery from being so down at heel.

Forget what happened elsewhere, this was the real European story of the night.

The bald facts remain that Blues are a Championship side, currently in 19th place, who are trying to stabilise themselves after an unpredictable, tumultus, turn of events since the day they qualified for Europe in February by winning the Carling Cup.

There had not been an away win for seven months and Maribor’s recent record at their People’s Garden stadium was strong - five victories and a draw from the last six European matches.

Yet here Blues are, rightly and deservedly able to bask in the glory of their gutsy performance, and the little slice of history they created.

This was their first victory on the road in Europe since defeating Internazionale in the 1961 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup semi-final and it also put them firmly in contention to keep their continental adventure going for longer, into the knock-out phase.

And this after an error that could easily have caused a disintegration in body, mind and spirit.

As he has tended to do whilst juggling the demands of the league and Europe, Chris Hughton made changes to the side, five in all.

Doyle came into goal for his European debut and Liam Ridgewell took the captain’s armband.

Elliott was given a new role, playing just behind Marlon King, with Nikola Zigic, Chris Wood and Adam Rooney all on the bench.

It had been noticed that Maribor’s defence tended to drop deep and hoped that Elliott’s busy ability on the ball and scampering runs would cause problems and help Blues exploit gaps and spaces.

Unfortunately Maribor slightly altered their line-up and the normal screening midfielder Zeljko Filipovic was left out so therefore Blues were not able to get after him either.

Blues selection ultimately paid dividends, although it was touch and go as Wood was ready to come on with Zigic to try a different approach just moments before Burke put Blues level.

Blues initial start to the match was solid and steady but Maribor began to move them about and got their eye in on Doyle’s goal.

First Marcos Tavares fired wide from a good position after bumping Steven Caldwell away to a long diagonal ball.

And Doyle tipped away a free header for Goran Cvijanovic at full stretch before Blues regained a foothold.

King could have been played clean through but Elliott’s return pass was much too heavy, and minutes before Doyle’s embarrassment Keith Fahey squandered an opportunity to open the scoring.

Jasmin Handanovic did well to get a punch on a cross that King was about to nod in and Fahey lashed the follow-up high and wide from outside the penalty area after it bounced back his way.