Key events
Ben Bloom was at St Andrew’s, and here’s his report. Thanks for reading this MBM.
Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna speaks to Sky. “It was a really tough game … it was always going to be that, coming here on the opening night … we didn’t impose ourselves well enough … the boys kept going … good impact from the bench … late goals will be important … Birmingham’s pressure was good, their intensity was good … it gives us a base to start with … I’m certain we will improve … there were some good things as well … sticking at it and getting the late goal is a big confidence booster … we have got some work to do … it was a passionate night … two passionate teams … it’s normal you will get flashpoints … I think there might have been an incident with the crowd and one of the players … that maybe wasn’t ideal … emotions run high … there is a lot of work to do in every aspect.”
Birmingham boss Chris Davies talks to Sky. “It was a very good game … really pleased with how we played … disappointed with the penalty … to concede so late is always a sore one … for the large part of the game we were the better team … played well … a lot of positives … a lot to take from that … the players are down … the penalty is really harsh … you won’t see many of those given … the context is more painful … it’s just scraped his finger … that’s ridiculous, that decision … over the course of the season hopefully we get those back our way … we didn’t let them settle … the boys were really focused … Ipswich are a very good footballing side … they normally keep the ball … they couldn’t do that tonight … there are mixed emotions right now … frustrated … but I can see how many positives we can take from that … that’s a team that was in the Premier League last year … we won’t play many teams as good as that … we have to keep building … we’re together as a club … for a long time it was pretty broken.”
The top of the Championship as it stands. Nothing more than a purist-goading exercise at this point in time.
Jacob Greaves, whose header onto Lyndon Dykes’ arm won the equalising penalty, and who was also involved in Kyogo’s disallowed goal, adds: “I was just concentrating on the ball … I thought he’d give a foul on the keeper … but he’s pointed to the spot … I knew George was going to score, I see it in training every day … he got us the point … Kyogo was clever to be fair … I got a whack from behind … it is a foul … I felt contact … the ref got it right to be honest.”
Maybe I went a bit early with the Everyone Friends Again observation, because here’s George Hirst talking to Sky. “That’s what I get paid to do at the end of the day … that’s my bread and butter … the centre-half said it was a rubbish penalty … in slightly different terms (!) … but it’s in the back of the net … that’s all that matters at the end of the day … we stuck together.”
FULL TIME: Birmingham City 1-1 Ipswich Town
Birmingham deserved to win. Ipswich snatched a point they didn’t really deserve. But that’s Championship football. Everyone friends again at the final whistle, which is nice to see.
90 min +10: As for the penalty award, Dykes’ arm was certainly up in an unnatural position, but he didn’t know what was going on, facing the other way as Greaves headed the ball onto it. Unfortunate for the hosts, but there you are.
90 min +9: Chaplin was booked for celebrating the equaliser by slamming the ball into the stand behind the goal. Klarer took great offence and threatened to knock his block off, leading to the aforementioned brouhaha.
90 min +7: From the kick-off, Hirst skittles Paik. Then Laird slams into Broadhead. This was always threatening to boil over, and now it has.
90 min +5: The equaliser, and perhaps Ipswich’s celebrations, prove too much for Birmingham. Both teams engage in a big shoving match. Young has quite a lot to say for himself, while Chaplin earns a booking.
GOAL! Birmingham City 1-1 Ipswich Town (Hirst 90+5 pen)
Hirst waits for Allsop to commit himself, then slots down the middle. It’s Ipswich’s first shot on target all night!
Penalty to Ipswich Town!
90 min +3: Davis drops deep on the right and crosses long. Osayi-Samuel is forced to head behind for a corner. Young sends it long … and then the referee points to the spot! Greaves heads onto the outstretched arm of Dykes, and it’s a penalty for the Tractor Boys!
90 min +1: Dykes gallops after a long pass down the inside-left channel, but is never getting there ahead of Palmer, who claims on the edge of his box.
90 min: There have been quite a few subs, and quite a few stoppages, so there will be a minimum of eight minutes of added time.
89 min: Anderson goes down with cramp and is eventually replaced by Gardner-Hickman.
87 min: Ipswich string a few passes together for the first time in a long while. Al-Hamadi finds himself in space, just inside the Birmingham box on the right, but slips and loses the chance to shoot. As good an opportunity as Ipswich have had all night, gone in an instant.
86 min: Young crosses from a deep position on the right. Hirst wins a header at the far stick, but can only eyebrow it over the bar. Allsop has had very little to do this evening.
85 min: Another Ipswich change, as Humphreys replaces the debutant Matusiwa.
83 min: Birmingham make a double change. Dykes replaces the goalscorer Stansfield, while in a more defensively-minded switch, Laird comes on for Gray.
81 min: Gray snaffles Young’s loose pass and nearly breaks into the Ipswich box down the left. Birmingham keep the visitors pinned back but Iwata releases the pressure by hoicking a dreadful long-range effort high and wide.
79 min: Another Ipswich change, as Al-Hamadi comes on for Clarke.
78 min: Kyogo, with an assist and a harshly disallowed goal to his name on debut, makes way for Doyle. Appreciative applause soundtracks his departure.
76 min: Stansfield spins Taylor, who clumsily clanks into him. Taylor, on a yellow, is very apologetic. Stansfield isn’t that willing to accept the hand of friendship. The referee gives Taylor the benefit of the doubt. Just a free kick. To be fair, it was more clumsy than aggressive, but there’s another Ipswich midfielder treading a fine line.
74 min: Cochrane wastes the resulting free kick, aiming for the top-left corner. An ambitious shot, with the box full of team-mates demanding a cross.
73 min: Stansfield nicks the ball off Matusiwa, who fouls him from behind. Having already been booked, the new Ipswich midfielder wants to watch himself here. Then Greaves drags Kyogo to the ground as the striker probes down the right. These two teams are falling out.
71 min: Paik is booked for a late lunge on Matusiwa. Quite a few knowing challenges going in at the moment.
70 min: To a chorus of ear-splitting boos, Young crosses from the right, looking for Hirst, who tangles with Neumann. A bit of shoving. Everyone still on edge.
69 min: The first change of the evening, and it’s made by Ipswich. A triple change, in fact. Chaplin, Broadhead and Young come on for Szmodics, Ogbene and Johnson. The 40-year-old Young, formerly of Aston Villa, receives the pantomime abuse you’d expect.
67 min: … but Ipswich soon get back to their metronomic passing. Birmingham hold them at arm’s length though.
65 min: Ipswich had enjoyed 90 percent of possession since the goal, a fine response to falling behind. So the hosts pass it around the back for a bit to reassert themselves. Anderson then buys a cheap free kick by turning the clumsy Johnson, and now it’s Birmingham’s turn to take their sweet time over a restart.
63 min: The resulting free kick leads to a corner on the right. Davis swings it in, and O’Shea heads it high over the bar. This match continues to bubble away without quite boiling over. There’s still time.
61 min: Cochrane flips Szmodics into the air, and Matusiwa takes exception to the act. An exchange of viewpoints. The referee tells everyone to simmer down.
59 min: Ipswich have done a lot of sitting back, but now they need to come out and play. So that’s what they do. Davis nearly gets on the end of Szmodics’ right-wing cross. Then Szmodics and Hirst one-two their way down the inside-right channel, only for Klarer to slide into view and hook away elegantly. A crucial intervention, because Szmodics would have been clear in the box.
57 min: The likes of Tom Brady and David Beckham are all good and well, but here’s a proper old-school celebrity Blue celebrating in the stand: Jasper Carrott. Second-city royalty.
GOAL! Birmingham City 1-0 Ipswich Town (Stansfield 55)
Palmer’s clearance is met on the halfway line by Osayi-Samuel, who heads it back down the inside-right channel. Kyogo gets in ahead of O’Shea, extending a leg and lobbing over Palmer. The ball cannons off the left-hand post and back to the feet of Stansfield, who can’t miss, and roofs it from six yards. St Andrew’s erupts!
53 min: Osayi-Samuel passes back to Allsop under intense pressure from Clarke. There’s plenty of juice on the pass, so the keeper does well to chip it back to his full-back over the head of the buzzing Clarke. Birmingham hearts in mouths for a split second there.
51 min: Hirst gets involved with Klarer on the halfway line, as the pair tussle under a long ball. A feeling that it wouldn’t take too much for this game to erupt in the precision-throwing of hands.
49 min: Iwata tries to return the favour with a curler from the right, but with Kyogo lurking, Greaves clears behind for a corner. The resulting set piece falls to Paik on the left-hand edge of the D; Paik swings a leg and hoicks harmlessly wide left. A long way left.
47 min: Kyogo tees up Iwata on the edge of the Ipswich box with a cushioned pass. Iwata blazes over.
46 min: The ball skims off the top of Osayi-Samuel’s head and nearly out for a corner. Osayi-Samuel chases back to stop the ball on the line, but is then flattened by Hirst, who had also been chasing and couldn’t slow his run. Free kick. Hirst not afraid to put it about.
Ipswich get the second half started. No changes. “Maybe there was to much hype to this fixture because neither side looks very impressive,” argues Mary Waltz. “Plus the officials wearing out their whistle has not helped.”
Half-time entertainment. Who and what to look out for this season in the Championship, courtesy of Ben Fisher.
HALF TIME: Birmingham City 0-0 Ipswich Town
Ipswich are favourites to go up, Birmingham third favourites. Both teams have 45-and-a-half more games to justify those predictions.
45 min +2: Johnson curls in from the right. Taylor comes in from the other flank and shoulders the ball wide. A decent enough chance to end the half.
45 min +1: The first of two additional first-half minutes passes without incident.
45 min: Gray takes the resulting free kick. A gentle curler towards the right-hand side of the goal that nestles gently in Palmer’s midriff. Easy.
44 min: Anderson barrels down the middle of the park and is unceremoniously skittled from behind by Matusiwa. A tug of the shirt, then a cheeky knee in the coccyx. No complaints, as he took one for the team. Anderson had options either side.
43 min: The expected goals so far: 0.18 to 0.15. Probably not too much by way of surprise in that statistic.
41 min: Anderson curls in from the left. Osayi-Samuel races in, hoping to slam home, but Greaves gets in ahead of him, hooking clear. In any case, the flag goes up – correctly – for offside.
40 min: Anderson scuffs a shot from 25 yards. It’s deflected as well. No good. Easy for Palmer. But then Matusiwa fluffs a pass upfield, and now Stansfield is gifted a chance to shoot from distance. He drags it wide left.
