| Birmingham City 1 v 1 Ipswich Town EFL Championship Friday, 8th August 2025 Kick-off 20:00 |  |
Birmingham City 1-1 Ipswich Town - Match Report Friday, 8th Aug 2025 22:13 George Hirst’s 95th-minute penalty claimed an unlikely 1-1 draw for Championship favourites Town in their opening game of the season at Birmingham City. The newly promoted home side looked set for all three points courtesy of Jay Stansfield’s goal on 55 until sub Lyndon Dykes handled in the area and Hirst confidently found the net to grab a share of the point. Chieo Ogbene was handed his first start since October last year and Leif Davis was fit to start at left-back following his hip problem, but Omari Hutchinson, Jaden Philogene and new signing Jens Cajuste were all absent from the squad. Ogbene, who ruptured achilles ligaments in last season’s away game at Brentford, started on the right of the three behind striker George Hirst with Jack Clarke on the left and Sammie Szmodics in the middle. Azor Matusiwa made his Town debut in midfield alongside Jack Taylor ahead of a back four of, from the right, Ben Johnson, playing his first league game outside the Premier League, new skipper Dara O’Shea, Jacob Greaves and Davis. Alex Palmer was in goal. Philogene was absent having picked up an ankle injury at Auxerre last week, while Hutchinson, the subject of transfer speculation, missed out with a throat infection. New signings Ashley Young and Cedric Kipre were on the bench, as was Nathan Broadhead, a Wrexham target, and young midfielder Fin Barbrook, in a matchday squad for a competitive game for the first time. The home crowd, still ebullient from last year’s record-breaking 111-point League One title, made plenty of noise before kick-off and as the game got under way. And with that backing firmly behind them, Birmingham saw virtually all of the ball in the early stages but without threatening. A Town free-kick from the right was sent in by Taylor but came to nothing, Clarke harshly adjudged to have fouled a defender beyond the back post. In the seventh minute, sections of the home crowd were on their feet cheering after Kyogo Furuhashi looped the ball over Palmer and into the net but referee Andrew Kitchen had already blown up as the Japanese international had jumped into Greaves in order to win the ball, catching him with an arm. On 22, Kyogo, a persistent niggling presence for the Town centre-halves, was found on the left of the box, but scraped his shot into the side-netting. Four minutes later, with the game having become a scruffy affair with plenty of fouls, mostly from Town, Taylor and Birmingham debutant Bright Osayi-Samuel were both booked for a minor dust-up on the touchline following a challenge. Moments later, good work from Hirst led to a Szmodics break towards the area but another Birmingham debutant, Phil Neumann, got across to put it out for Town’s first corner of the match. Szmodics had made a good start but the former Blackburn man missed a very good chance to put the Blues in front in the 25th minute. Birmingham skipper Christop Klarer passed back to keeper Ryan Allsop, who played it straight to Szmodics just outside the area but the Ireland international shot wide of the target. Just after the half hour, some sharp Birmingham passing ended with Tomoki Iwata playing a ball forward into the area to one-time Town target Stansfield, but the England U21 international blazed well over having had time to set himself. Moments later, Town had their second clear opening of the evening. A long O’Shea pass played in Davis on the left, the full-back broke into the box in front of his man but hit his shot with the inside of his left boot rather than the outside and sent it across goal rather than over Allsop and into the net. On 40, Keshi Anderson scuffed a shot through to Palmer after Town had lost the ball playing out from the left, then moments later they surrendered it again, Stansfield scraping a shot from the edge wide when the striker should have done much better. In the 43rd minute Matusiwa, who was struggling with the pace of the game, lost possession a few yards inside the Birmingham half, then pulled back Anderson and was yellow-carded. Demarai Gray, making his second debut for the club, shot straight at Palmer from 30 yards. In the second minute of two added on, Johnson crossed from the right and Taylor flicked a header across goal and wide. A decent chance, if not as good as the earlier ones for Szmodics and Davis. That was the last action of a half which the home side had dominated in the early stages without seriously threatening, aside from Kyogo’s disallowed goal. The period became scrappier as it reached its midway point, before the Blues began to find their feet more but without ever really taking control. Despite that, Town will feel they had the better chances with Szmodics and Davis spurning opportunities they ought to have taken, while Stansfield was similarly profligate. Three minutes after the restart, hesitant defending from the Blues allowed Iwata a shot at goal from the edge of the area which the Japanese international sent well over. A minute later, a cross from the right was headed out by Greaves and Seung-Ho Paik struck a low effort wide of Palmer’s right post. On 53, Johnson gave the ball away just outside the Town area, not for the first time, and the ball was threaded through for Kyogo, whose clever turn was read by Greaves, who cleared the danger. However, two minutes later, the home side went in front. Greaves played back to Palmer, whose high ball to halfway was nodded back forward by Osayi-Samuel. Kyogo just stayed onside and got behind the Blues’ backline and looped over Palmer, the ball struck the far post but fell to Stansfield, who lashed into the roof of the net. It was a very poor goal from a Town perspective and the Blues set about getting back on terms, a defender getting in front of Davis as he sought to get onto the ball in a promising position on the left of the box, then Hirst and Szmodics exchanging passes into the area before a Birmingham toe intervened. In the 63rd minute, Szmodics stooped to loop a Davis corner from the right over the bar at the near post. After Clarke had had the ball stabbed out of play on the left of the box, only for the referee to award a goal-kick, the Blues made their first changes of the evening in the 68th minute. Johnson, Ogbene and Szmodics made way for Young, making his Town debut and becoming the oldest man to play for the Blues since Phil Parkes’s final match against Brighton in May 1991, Conor Chaplin and Broadhead, Clarke moving to the right so the Welshman could play on the left. Paik was booked for a foul on Matusiwa with the game going through another scruffy spell with the already yellow-carded Taylor committing another foul but with referee Kitchen not showing an interest in issuing another. On 76, Kyogo made way for Tommy Doyle, then three minutes later, Ali Al-Hamadi replaced Clarke for Town. Birmingham swapped Stansfield, who looked to have picked up a knock, and Gray for Lyndon Dykes and Ethan Laird before the Blues replaced Matusiwa, who will have learned a lot from his first Championship game, for Cameron Humphreys. In the 85th minute, Al-Hamadi laid back to Young on the right, the right-back - booed every time he touched the ball by the home fans for his Villa connections - crossed deep for Hirst, but the striker was unable to keep his header down. As the game moved into its penultimate minute, Taylor Gardner-Hickman replaced Anderson. Town hadn’t looked like getting back into the game in any way, shape or form, but in the fourth minute of injury time they were handed a lifeline. Young sent over a deep corner from the left, Greaves won it at the far post and his header caught the raised arm of Dykes. Referee Kitchen pointed straight to the spot much to the consternation of the home players and fans. Hirst took the kick and hit it straight down the middle with Allsop diving to his right before celebrating in front of the home support. Chaplin kicked the ball into the fans behind the goal, much to the anger of the Birmingham players who remonstrated with the Town goalscorer with most of the outfielders joining in. Taylor was grabbed by a fan, who appeared to get him in a headlock, before order was restored. Chaplin was booked but several others from both teams probably should have joined him, while the supporter is likely to face action. Birmingham’s players seemed to lose their heads after the goal and its aftermath, Hirst hauled to the ground at one end, before a couple of needless fouls. Town were the ones pushing for a winner at the end, winning a corner on the right, but Greaves was unable to nod back across goal and create a likely winner. For much of the second half, it looked like being a disappointing start to the season for the Blues, who had weathered the early Birmingham storm without too much concern before getting more of a foothold as the first half wore on and had chances to go in front. However, once they’d conceded what was a very poor goal, hardly the first time there had been hesitancy and disorganisation in the backline, they showed very few signs of getting back into the match, even after the substitutions, so often a game-changer for the Blues in the Championship two seasons ago. While the penalty was a penalty by the letter of the law as it stands, Dykes having both his arms in the air as the corner came over, it was nevertheless a huge slice of fortune with no Town player appealing. The match was a stark contrast to the Premier League fixtures the Blues got used to last season with the ball given away all too easily, by both teams, and the type of chances snapped up in the top flight squandered. Given the narrative of the game and the Blues’ understrength and makeshift XI, Kieran McKenna will no doubt be delighted to have got the campaign under way by picking up an away point. Birmingham City: Allsop, Osayi-Samuel, Neumann, Klarer (c), Cochrane, Tomoki, Paik, Gray (Laird 83), Stansfield (Dykes 83), Anderson (Gardner-Hickman 89), Kyogo (Doyle 76). Unused: Beadle, Bielik, Leonard, Willumsson, Cashin. Town: Palmer; Johnson (Young 68), O’Shea (c), Greaves, Davis, Matusiwa (Humphreys 85), Taylor, Ogbene (Broadhead 68), Szmodics (Chaplin 68), Clarke (Al-Hamadi 79), Hirst. Unused: Walton, Kipre, Woolfenden, Humphreys, Barbrook. Referee: Andrew Kitchen (Durham). Att: 27,508.
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