Birmingham City 2-3 Hull City: FLW report as Tigers end Blues' lengthy unbeaten home record in five-goal thriller | OneFootball

FLW report from St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park for this Championship encounter

Hull City ended Birmingham City's run of 29 league games without defeat at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park with a dramatic 3-2 success, whilst also recording back-to-back victories for the first time in 12 months in the process.

It was an encounter that had it all in the West Midlands, kickstarted by Jack Robinson's 11th-minute own goal following an initial strike from Kyle Joseph.

Jay Stansfield equalised 17 minutes later for the hosts as he latched onto an Ivor Pandur parry from inside the six-yard box, before a fiery first half concluded with Regan Slater powering home a smart header after driving into the box.

Robinson was then dismissed for dissent after 60 minutes, before Chris Davies' side fell 3-1 down in second-half stoppage time through Joe Gelhardt's third of the season.

To their credit, Birmingham made Sergej Jakirovic's outfit sweat in the dying minutes as Stansfield's fifth of the league campaign came from the spot, but they have now shot up the table after two wins on the spin.

Birmingham City 2-3 Hull City

In the opening 10 minutes, the trio of Tomoki Iwata, Marc Leonard and the returning Keshi Anderson were the most lively for Blues, with the Scottish midfielder seeing a powerful strike well blocked before Charlie Hughes was on his toes to deny a fizzing cross from the latter of those.

However, it was the Tigers who would take the lead on 11 minutes as McBurnie slipped in the advancing Joseph, who raced through against James Beadle, with the initial effort taking a nick off the onrushing keeper before deflecting into the net off Robinson.

Ivor Pandur was then on hand to comfortably gather a free header from the defender at the other end - albeit he was offside - before Hughes was able to powerfully head away a fizzing Patrick Roberts curler.

To conclude a frenetic opening 20 minutes, the home quarters were left incensed as Anderson fell under pressure from Hughes inside the box after being sent through, with referee, Ruebyn Ricardo left unmoved.

Blues would draw level just before the half-hour mark, though, with Stansfield turning home his fourth league goal of the season after Pandur could only parry Paik Seung-Ho's initial effort into the striker's path.

The first chance for Oli McBurnie came 10 minutes before the break, as a bizarre set-piece corner from the visitors was recycled by Slater, whose drilled ball in was met well by the Scot who headed just over from 12 yards.

Joe Gelhardt then stung the palms of Beadle from 20 yards out, before a melee involving both sides and their respective backroom staff held up play for a lengthy period following a strong tackle from Joseph on Roberts.

With the aforementioned situation resulting in five minutes of added time, Hull took full advantage as an unmarked Slater powered home his first of the season, latching onto a teasing Coyle cross to head past Beadle.

The first action of the second period saw the lively Anderson drift into the box for Blues, with Pandur able to gather the winger's shot aimed for the bottom corner. The Hull shot-stopper then pulled off a stunning save to thwart an Alex Cochrane piledriver on 54 minutes.

Ryan Giles tried his luck in similar fashion three minutes later, with the Hull left-back seeing his effort curl wide of Beadle's left-hand post.

On the hour-mark, Robinson's afternoon went from bad to worse as the experienced centre-back was shown a straight red card by Ricardo for dissent, causing further unrest amongst Blues supporters.

With 18 minutes remaining, Davies' side looked to ramp up their pressure, with Pandur once again on hand to thwart a strong effort from Gray, after the Blues playmaker had taken up position on the right flank. Substitute Kyogo Furuhashi then tried a long-ranger of his own that was headed clear by Hughes.

Jakirovic's side then passed up two golden chances to kill the contest, with Beadle palming away a finessed Gelhardt effort before substitute Liam Millar saw the rebound turned behind.

Kyogo spurned a clear-cut opportunity of his own moments later, with the Japanese frontman firing wide after showing John Egan a clean pair of heels following Darko Gyabi's initial error.

Matt Crooks was extremely fortunate to stay on the pitch with seven minutes to go, with the midfielder appearing to foul Stansfield, with the referee showing a caution to Egan instead.

A frantic end period began with Millar, once again, misfiring from close-range after another Tigers corner, before the advanced Drameh smacked the inside of Beadle's upright under pressure from Lewis Koumas.

Blues fans then saw further appeals for a penalty waved away as Kyogo's low effort was blocked by Egan as Hull looked to cling on to the three points.

To the surprise of everyone inside St. Andrew's, Beadle was sent up for a corner in the opening seconds of seven added minutes, with the keeper, of all people, heading wide of the mark following a flick-on.

Birmingham would miss all of those rued chances with four minutes remaining, as Gelhardt slammed home what looked to be the winner, lashing home a fierce drive under Beadle's legs from close range.

That wouldn't be the end of the scoring as Lyndon Dykes was judged to have been fouled by Egan, with Stansfield reducing the arrears with a tidy spot-kick.

A dramatic encounter would eventually reach its conclusion after 99 breathless minutes of action, with Hull moving up to 10th, whilst Blues stay 17th.

FT: Birmingham City 2-3 Hull City

Player Ratings

Birmingham City

James Beadle - 6.5

Tomoki Iwata - 6

Christoph Klarer - 6.5

Jack Robinson - 4

Alex Cochrane - 6.5 (Koumas 83" - 6)

Marc Leonard - 6.5 (Doyle 63" - 6)

Seung-ho Paik - 7 (Dykes 84" - 6)

Patrick Roberts - 6.5

Keshi Anderson - 7 (Furuhashi 63" - 6)

Demarai Gray - 7

Jay Stansfield - 7.5

Unused Subs: Ryan Allsop, Alfons Sampsted, Bright Osayi-Samuel, Kanya Fujimoto

Hull City

Ivor Pandur - 7

Lewie Coyle - 7.5 (Drameh 50" - 7)

John Egan - 6

Charlie Hughes - 7

Ryan Giles - 6.5

Amir Hadziahmetovic - 6.5 (Gyabi 70" - 6)

Regan Slater - 8

David Akintola - 6 (Crooks 46" - 7)

Joe Gelhardt - 8

Kyle Joseph - 7.5 (Destan 79" - 6)

Oli McBurnie - 6.5 (Millar 70" - 7)

Unused Subs: Dillon Phillips, Akin Famewo, Semi Ajayi, Joel Ndala

The attendance at St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park this afternoon was 27,815.

This included a sold-out away allocation of 1,961 Hull City supporters.

Chris Davies reacts as Birmingham City defeated by Hull City

Asked to summarise a hotly-contested encounter, Davies told the media: "I'm very disappointed to lose at home in the league for the first time.

"We were fairly strong in our attacking game in the first half, I thought we looked more dynamic. I wanted us to be more fluid in our attack and have a bit more a threat on their goal, more numbers in the box, more touches in the box.

"There was a lot of that there," he explained. "The two occasions they really got near our goal, they scored.

"Going in at half-time, it was 2-1 down against the run of play. But, really sloppy moments from us in a defensive sense.

"I looked at it, objectively, as a half. We were looking much the better team in terms of our threat, the way we're playing and our fluidity.

"Despite being very frustrated at being 2-1 down, Naturally, it was a case of 'if we continue to play like that and tighten up in any moments they get to our box', we're going to go on and score the couple of goals we need.

"Second half, I was fairly confident we would grow and grow and grow as the half went on," the Blues boss added.

"But, to lose a player due to a lack of discipline is really hard to take. Because, ultimately, it's cost us the chance to really push on.

"I thought the players did really well - 10v11 - to generate the chances we did. You could see the work ethic and everything they were giving, they couldn't have done much more in that sense.

"We're leaving the odd counter-attack open and they were really clinical today. We pushed right to the end.

"There's a lot there to dissect. Ultimately, that lack of discipline in a key moment has cost us."

Sergej Jakirovic reacts as Hull City edge past Birmingham City in dramatic fashion

Reflecting on his side's second successive victory, Jakirovic began by stating: "Congratulations to my boys for 90 minutes of fighting and running.

"It had everything a football match could offer, because it was very difficult," he added. "Especially in the first half, because Birmingham were better on the ball. They caused lots of problems on our left side.

"We used one good action when Oli (McBurnie) passed to Kyle (Joseph). This was our first action of the game in the first half.

"We scored, but we didn't have much possession or try to play in the way we prepared in the week," Jakirovic explained. "I don't know the reason why, you will see that.

"But fighting and running, everything until the incident on the touchline. Maybe Birmingham lost focus and rhythm in the game, and we scored two minutes later.

"At half-time, we took Akintola out and tried to put more 'duel' players inside with Crooksy (Matt Crooks). Even then, the red card maybe helped us, because we struggled a lot in midfield. This is something we must improve," he continued.

"When they lose one player, even then, we didn't have good control of the play, especially in possession and some counter-attacks we must finish better in order to finish the game earlier.

"Joffo (Gelhardt) makes it 3-1, then a penalty (to make it 3-2). I see, every weekend, lots of challenges like this, but god knows? We still have to respect the referee's decision.

"At the end, we are happy because we took three points away. We haven't done for a long time, and now we have two wins in a row which is good for us," Jakirovic concluded.