Birmingham City fans will always love cult hero that played just 6 times for Blues | OneFootball

Obafemi Martins will always be a key part of Birmingham City's rich history

Birmingham City's 150-year history has been filled with an array of iconic players who have donned the Royal Blue, as well as great moments enjoyed by thousands of Bluenoses.

The club currently believe they are on the path towards replicating, if not bettering such great days under the stewardship of Knighthead Capital Management, who have vowed to end Blues' long-standing exile from the Premier League, having last featured in the top-flight back in 2011.

It represented the end of a largely successful period at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park, with seven of nine campaigns seeing the club mixing it with the so-called 'big boys' whilst the other two Championship seasons resulted in promotion under Steve Bruce and Alex McLeish.

The second relegation campaign under the Scot was also extremely bittersweet as, just two months before falling back into the EFL, those associated with the B9 outfit were given one of, if not the greatest day of their Blues supporting lives, and a man who only featured six times for the club is now regarded as a club icon as a result of his last-gasp heroics.

Obafemi Martins' initial move to Birmingham City in the winter of 2011

Obafemi Martins was already a well-known figure to Premier League watchers and supporters, having previously made 104 appearances for Newcastle United between 2006 and 2009 after a £10.1m switch from Italian giants, Inter Milan, scoring 35 times and laying on a further 10 assists for his teammates at St James' Park.

After spending a season at Wolfsburg following his move from the North East, the Nigerian moved to Russian Pro League club, Rubin Kazan, but had only made eight appearances - four of which were starts - heading into the January transfer window.

Blues had previously invested £6m for the services of giant Serbian forward, Nikola Zigic from Valencia, and were clearly in need of further firepower in their bid to stave off relegation and secure a major trophy for the first time since 1963, having just progressed to the EFL Cup final against Arsenal after going on a run which saw them defeat bitter rivals Aston Villa and West Ham United at the quarter-final and semi-final stage.

A six-month loan was agreed between Birmingham and Martins' parent club on January 31st, with McLeish's side sat 17th with 23 points - one point above the relegation zone - and the second-worst goalscoring return at the time.

Obafemi Martins etched himself into Birmingham City folklore with EFL Cup final winner

After initial complications surrounding the deal, the then-26-year-old received clearance to make his Blues bow in a 1-0 success over Stoke City on home turf. He then made his second and third appearances against former club, Newcastle and in a 3-0 victory in the FA Cup fifth round against Sheffield Wednesday, scoring his first goal for the club against the Owls.

The most iconic moment of his career would come the following week against the Gunners under the Wembley arch though. Zigic had given the underdogs the advantage on 28 minutes, although this would be swiftly cancelled out by a neat Robin van Persie finish 11 minutes later.

After Ben Foster withstood a barrage of Arsenal pressure between the sticks, the shot-stopper sent a searching goal-kick towards Zigic which led to a major mishap between Laurent Koscielny and Wojciech Szczęsny, with Martins left with the simple task of slotting into an empty net two minutes from time as Blues held out and secured the EFL Cup for the second-ever time.

"I get told I will be a legend with fans. I don't know about that. I just want to play my football and be happy," he admitted post-match.

"I have scored a lot of important goals but I'm glad to take a trophy with one of the easiest goals of my career.

"As a striker, you just need to hope something might happen. I have to be in there to see what is going to happen. A mistake is made and I scored!

"I know it is an easy goal but I have to take my time to score because there are a lot of fans watching and I don't want to let them down," Martins stated.

His final two appearances for Blues came in league defeats to local rivals West Bromwich Albion and Wigan, with fitness issues ruling him out for the run-in which ultimately proved costly, as the club were relegated at the expense of another West Midlands rival in the form of Wolves, finishing a point behind Mick McCarthy's side.