Latest Birmingham City news from BirminghamLive as season opener against promotion favourites ends in 1-1 draw
Jay Stansfield looks dejected after the draw against Ipswich Town
A controversial penalty denied Birmingham City a winning return to the Championship as they were held 1-1 by underwhelming promotion favourites Ipswich Town.
The hosts, cheered on by an electric St Andrew’s crowd, thought they had taken the lead in the seventh minute when Kyogo Furuhashi outjumped Jacob Greaves and lobbed Town keeper Alex Palmer, but referee Andrew Kitchen adjudged the striker to have fouled the towering defender and blew for a free-kick.
In fact, Kitchen blew for 17 fouls in the opening period, which contributed to the stop-start nature of a much-anticipated opening game of the new Championship season.
With the visitors toiling to prove their promotion credentials, the roof came off St Andrew’s 10 minutes after the break.
Furuhashi again caused problems for Ipswich, latching onto a ball over the top which Ipswich failed to deal with and he dinked a finish over Palmer and onto the post, but Jay Stansfield was waiting to pick up the scraps and blasted high into the net to score his 37th goal for the club.
Ipswich were given the chance to equalise after the referee pointed to the spot after a ball was headed onto the hand of Blues sub Lyndon Dykes inside the home area and George Hirst confidently sent Ryan Allsop the wrong way to snatch a 1-1 draw.
Blues fans were incensed by the referee and took to social media after the game to vent their anger. Here is what somew of them had to say…
LouisBCFC1875: Sorry, but they’ve had to be helped out by that ref all game, didn’t deserve to draw that. Ipswich nowhere near as good as you’d expect. We play like that we’re play-offs minimum.
Swanny: Incredibly soft penalty but his arm up that high gives the ref a choice to make, still very encouraging to dominate the league favourite like this.
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KC: He should never officiate a game again. That’s absolutely disgraceful. Whistle happy, disallowed a goal with minimal contact and has awarded a penalty for that. Absolutely disgusting.
AnarchoKyle: Only reinforced my belief that Blues are serious contenders for promotion. We were good value for all 3 points, but poor decisions are a part of the journey.
Mark: Didn’t do enough after going 1-0 up.
Max: Sickening robbery but proud of the lads. A positive start to the season against a recently relegated Prem side. LOTS to be excited about this season. Kyogo-Stansfield link-up is going to be class!
Mikey: We were far the better team and if they are one of the favourites we will be absolutely fine. Awesome from them all tonight. We go again lads.
zGrantt : New season same old decisions. We are all used to the poor decisions and they don’t even come as a surprise anymore. Take nothing away from the performance.
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