Birmingham City 1-1 Northampton Town: FLW report as Blues drop crucial late points | OneFootball

FLW reports live from St Andrew's @ Knighthead Park

Birmingham City were left to rue their missed chances against Northampton Town, as Mitch Pinnock cancelled out Jay Stansfield's opener in the final minute of second-half stoppage time.

Despite barely impacting the game in what was a frustrating first half for Chris Davies' side, the club-record signing came up trumps after 58 minutes with the decisive strike after an initially resistant performance from Jon Brady's men.

However, Blues were made to pay for a handful of missed chances as the ball fell to the Cobblers midfielder, who sent a low drive past Ryan Allsop in the 96th minute to send the travelling support into raptures.

Heading into the encounter, Davies re-introduced captain Krystian Bielik and Alfie May to the starting XI in place of Ben Davies and Luke Harris, whilst Brady altered his side with the same number of changes as Sam Hoskins and Tyler Magliore came in for Tarique Fosu and Jack Sowerby.

Unsurprisingly, it was the hosts who dominated the early exchanges, with both Alex Cochrane and Tomoki Iwata seeing efforts from the edge of the box well dealt with by the Cobblers' back-line, before Alfie May was unable to make clean contact with a Seung-Ho Paik cross.

Northampton's first chance of the encounter fell to centre-back Jon Guthrie, who saw the ball ricochet into his path from close range, but Ryan Allsop was on hand to deny the 32-year-old from scoring his second of the campaign with an instinctive save.

Ethan Laird was one of Birmingham's key outlets in the first period, but once again, the home side were left frustrated as Keshi Anderson was unable to connect cleanly on two occasions.

In a half where chances were few and far between, Cameron McGeehan rose highest from a Mitch Pinnock corner, but the midfielder was unable to generate sufficient power or accuracy to test Allsop.

Straight after the restart, May found himself in space down the left-hand channel, but was unable to thread it through to Stansfield with Lee Burge narrowing the angle well.

Neat play between Iwata, Laird and Willum Willumsson forced the first set-piece of the half, and after May and Krystian Bielik recycled play, Burge was on hand from close range to deny Cristoph Klarer's toe-poke.

Paik then fashioned the following opportunity, as the South Korean played in a teasing delivery from the left, and despite meeting it well, Willumsson saw his header rise high of the target, before Anderson and Cochrane's successive powerful efforts deflected behind once more.

However, Northampton's resistance would be broken by Stansfield just seconds later, with the club-record signing flicking the ball past Burge from a handful of yards out after impressive play from Willumsson to pick out the forward through bodies.

That saw the momentum sway with Birmingham, and Stansfield was much more involved as a result, seeing a fizzing effort go just wide of the left-hand post.

Once again, the England Under-21 international went close on 74 minutes, but his flick from a pinpoint Ayumu Yokoyama cross flew inches wide of Burge's left-hand post.

However, for all their dominance, Birmingham were nearly punished as substitute Will Hondermarck found space to drive inside from the right, but his effort was blocked on the line by the Blues' captain, Bielik.

With just two minutes remaining, neither the freshly-introduced Lyndon Dykes or Stansfield were able to ease any late tension among the home support in B9, with the latter seeing his header crash off the upright.

Yokoyama then found space to deliver yet another wicked ball, with the striker yet again unable to double his tally for the afternoon.

The young Japanese winger then saw a fizzing effort easily gathered by Burge, before Birmingham's wastefulness would be punished in the dying seconds.

The hosts failed to clear their lines, with the ball eventually falling into the path of Pinnock, and his low drive fizzed across Allsop into the right-hand corner, sending the Shoe Army into delirium.

Player Ratings

Birmingham City

Ryan Allsop - 6.5

Ethan Laird - 7 (Sampsted 73" - 6)

Cristoph Klarer - 7

Krystian Bielik - 8 (Sanderson 89" - N/A)

Alex Cochrane - 7

Seung-Ho Paik - 7

Tomoki Iwata - 7

Willum Willumsson - 8 (Dykes 88 - N/A)

Keshi Anderson - 7 (Yokoyama 73" - 7)

Alfie May - 6.5 (Harris 61" - 6)

Jay Stansfield - 8

Northampton Town

Lee Burge - 7

Tyler Magloire - 7 (Eyoma 50" - 6)

Jack Baldwin - 6.5 (Hondermarck 54" - 6)

Jon Guthrie - 6.5

Akin Odimayo - 6.5

Cameron McGeehan - 7

Ben Fox - 6 (Dobson 69" - 6)

Nesta Guinness-Walker - 6

Mitch Pinnock - 7.5

Liam McCarron - 6 (Waghorn 69" - 6.5)

Sam Hoskins - 6 (Chouchane 69" - 6)

Chris Davies reacts as Birmingham City drop two crucial points

Davies was ultimately left frustrated by his side's inability to see out what would have been an important three points, as well as the manner of Pinnock's equaliser.

"We had everything that I wanted to see. We couldn't get the second goal, and if you don't, then you hope to take a 1-0 win and move on," he said in his post-match press conference.

"To concede in the last second of the game, when you have no time to respond, is difficult to take.

"It's the poorest goal we've conceded this season. It's painful as we've given everything to get those three points, but it wasn't to be," the Blues boss added.

"We had lots of moments where we could have scored two or three and taken the game away from them."

Despite the disappointment of the result, the Birmingham manager remains optimistic for the short and long-term future of the club based off his first three months in charge.

"The club's in a great place. There's really good people here and a lot of people working hard for what hopefully is a bright future," he continued.

Jon Brady reacts as Northampton Town produce late show at St Andrew's

Speaking to Northampton's official club media post-match, Brady credited the performance of his players regardless of Pinnock's last-gasp strike.

"I've just said to the boys, even if we'd have lost 1-0 in the end, I would have come in and been immensely proud of their efforts," he began.

"But, with five minutes to go, I just asked Neo "Dobson) and Waggy (Waghorn) to stay further up the pitch and have a gamble to free ourselves up and pin their backline if they could.

"To get that equaliser was quite pleasing in the end," Brady added. "They dominated possession. We came to disrupt, we came to spoil, and we did that brilliantly.

"To get the equaliser in the end - it feels like a winner - especially after the week we've had. To give that memory to the supporters feels good."

The attendance at Birmingham City 1-1 Northampton Town

The attendance in B9 for the 1-1 draw was a sell-out crowd of 27,085.

That number included 2,205 who made the journey from Northampton.