After a campaign patchy enough to be best forgotten, Gérard Houllier's men found the perfect moment to click into gear. For the first time in aeons they have woven together three consecutive Premiership wins, a positive enough statement to put a healthy sheen on the season's end.
Should the fourth Champions League spot boil down to next Saturday's showdown with Newcastle at Anfield, at least they can approach it with confidence. The onus is now on Bobby Robson's team to collect at least four points from their two games in hand - today against Wolves and a midweek trip to Southampton - to keep Liverpool on their toes.
Birmingham, despite a tired run of form and little to play for but an upbeat send-off to the season in front of their home support, were still stubborn enough to make Liverpool work for their opportunities. But not that hard.
The visitors carved Birmingham open with their first meaningful attack as Danny Murphy's cute pass invited Emile Heskey to strike low and hard across the face of goal. His effort, however, was neither shot nor cross for a screaming Michael Owen. The jinking Harry Kewell was the next to tee up Heskey, whose attempt at an angled drive was blocked by Kenny Cunningham's astute interception.
As an audition for a potential future role at Birmingham - Steve Bruce is believed to be interested in securing his services in the summer -- Heskey reconfirmed the impression that he is an erratic handful.
Liverpool's touch and passing were slightly off-key, a problem emphasised when Owen miscontrolled a couple of tantalising opportunities. The England hitman persevered, though, and would have scored with some brilliant predatory work but for an equally dazzling point-blank save.
Birmingham should have punished Liverpool with a well-constructed move down the left involving Jamie Clapham and Stephen Clemence, but Clinton Morrison blazed over the crossbar. The Ireland striker went close again with a looping header minutes later.
Enough. Owen evidently felt sufficient concern to sort Liverpool out. Just before the half-hour mark, he accelerated on to Heskey's sweetly weighted pass, burned past his marker Cunningham, and flicked the ball past the advancing Ian Bennett and into the far corner. Classic, unstoppable, Michael Owen.
Predictably enough Birmingham's stomach for the fight dipped suddenly. Liverpool were allowed to string together pass after pass and Blues chased shadows and appeared to be thinking about Saturday night revelry. Just as Owen had lifted his team, so Mikael Forssell tried to revive Birmingham with a determined solo run.
But on the appetite stakes, there was no competition between the homely Blues and Liverpool's Euro vision. Six minutes after the break Houllier's men took another giant stride towards the Champions League berth they crave with a fine team goal. Kewell bewildered Birmingham with a sublime flick into Steven Gerrard's path. The England midfielder, who had been subdued by recent standards, sprang to life with a lung-busting burst and perfect cut-back. Heskey, this time, sidefooted crisply past Bennett. Liverpool's sweeping moves threatened to make the scoreline more emphatic, and Gerrard tested Bennett with a ferocious long-distance chip.
Bruce made a triple substitution, hoping for an unlikely turnaround to propel City to their goal of finishing in the top 10 for the first time in 30 years. But four minutes later Cunningham was sent off for attempting to mug Gerrard, who was charging goalwards with nobody but Bennett to beat.
The Birmingham captain might have been better letting Gerrard go with the game virtually beyond reach. By the end, Liverpool should have racked up a massive scoreline. Heskey and Owen blew golden chances, with Gerrard setting them up masterfully. The Liverpool captain supplied the coup de grace with a stylish goal four minutes from time, bent around the keeper's hopeless dive.
And so the locals began filing out. They had had their fun, with a conga in the Tilton Road End recognition of their contentedness in spite of a comprehensive beating. A seven-game winless streak doesn't disguise the massive progress engineered by Bruce's side this season which will live long in Birmingham's memory.
Liverpool still need one last push to make this one to remember.