Wanderers 4, BIRMINGHAM CITY 2: A FEW hours after selling top scorer Michael Ricketts for big dosh, Wanderers rattled in four goals to win their crucial relegation battle and drag Steve Bruce's Birmingham back into the survival scrap.

Twice they led and twice they were pegged back but late goals from Youri Djorkaeff (83 mins) and Delroy Facey (86) his first in the Premiership put the game out of the Blues' reach.

And Jay Jay Okocha, returning after injury, was at the heart of the winning surge with an imposing performance as Wanderers edged four points clear of the bottom three.

Sunderland did themselves no favours with three own goals in seven crazy first-half-minutes to lose 3-1 at home and go to the foot of the table - and West Brom had a massive victory at Maine Road to deflate Kevin Keegan's hopes of a Robbie Fowler-inspired charge into Europe.

But for much of the second half at the Reebok it looked as if Wanderers had squandered chances to impose themselves as Robbie Savage (44 mins) the Clinton Morrison (53) cancelled out leads that came courtesy of a Kenny Cunningham own goal on 12 minutes and a scrambled second from Henrik Pedersen 30 seconds after the interval.

Wanderers: Jaaskelainen; N'Gotty, Bergsson, Campo, Charlton; Mendy, Frandsen, Okocha, Gardner; Djorkaeff, Pedersen. Subs: Facey for Pedersen 81 mins. Not used: Nolan, Barness, Tofting, Poole.

Birmingham: Bennett, Kenna, Cunningham, Upson, Clapham; Devlin, Savage, Clemence, Lazaridis; Dugarry, Morrison. Subs: John for Dugarry 67 mins, Kirovski for Devlin 73 mins. Not used: Johnson (M), Swierczewski, Vaesen.

Referee: Dermot Gallagher (Banbury).

Attendance: 24,288.

Earlier on this file we revealed what went on during Frantic Friday:

IT went to the wire but Wanderers succeeded in clinching four deals as the January sales ended with a day of frantic activity, false alarms and hard bargaining writes Gordon Sharrock

With just half an hour to go to the midnight deadline, Michael Ricketts was still a Bolton player. Minutes later the 24-year-old striker had signed a four-and-a-half-year contract with Middlesbrough, wrapping up a deal worth a minimum £3.5 million to Wanderers.

Sam Allardyce then acted swiftly, swinging his contingency plans into action and rushing through the double deal that sees the Nantes striker Pierre-Yves Andre and Lyon centre-back Florent Laville - the French trialists who impressed last week - join the Reebok ranks on loan for the rest of the season. The players were at the ground awaiting developments and saw their deals go through with just 10 minutes to spare.

Earlier in the day the Bolton boss had spent nailbiting hours waiting for international clearance to complete the formalities of Salva Ballesta's loan switch from Valencia which had all been agreed 24 hours earlier but was in danger of being scuppered by an apparent lack of urgency of the Spanish authorities. That deal was finally ratified at 5.30pm but too late for the 27-year-old Spain international to make his debut in the Reebok relegation battle with Birmingham. Similarly, Andre and Laville are ineligible.

And in another shock development, as the European mid-season transfer window slammed shut, Ndia Lord-Kangana - the 18-year-old defender from Sweden who thought he was already a Bolton player - learned that his transfer from Djurgardens had collapsed because of a problem over his international clearance. The youngster has returned to Sweden in the hope that Wanderers will maintain their interest and revive the deal at a later date.

It was the Ricketts deal, however, that was central to the day's activities with rumour, speculation and controversy prompting a succession of wildly inaccurate reports to be circulated.

Said to be finally on his way to Spurs after a dramatic 11th hour development to a long-running transfer saga, the once-capped England striker left Wanderers Euxton training ground at lunchtime heading in the opposite direction with Middlesbrough claiming they had agreed a fee, said to be in the region of £4m.

But throughout the afternoon, Wanderers insisted that Boro had jumped the gun; not only had they not agreed a fee, they had not even received a written offer! That offer finally arrived at the Reebok at 5pm, starting an evening of bargaining as Allardyce negotiated the terms of a deal that was finally agreed and registered with the FA at 11.30pm.

Wanderers will receive £3.5m plus a percentage of any future profit Boro may make on the Birmingham-born player.

The deal took Boro's spending on the day to £8.5m, having earlier agreed a joint fee of £5m with Derby for former England U21 internationals, striker Malcolm Christie and defender Chris Riggott.

Throughout the day, which will long be remembered as Frantic Friday, news organisations reported deals done that had not, at the time, been sanctioned - Ballesta, Andre and Lord included - while the FA added to the confusion of the Premiership's first experience of a mid-winter transfer window by initially declaring that the deadline was 5.30pm then announcing they would stay open until midnight to process registrations.