Hull City 1-1 Birmingham City: FLW report as Tigers slip up in play-off race v Blues | OneFootball

FLW report from the MKM Stadium for this Championship fixture

Hull City saw a chance to put a firm grasp on their position in the Championship play-off places pass them by as they were frustrated by Birmingham City in a 1-1 draw at the MKM Stadium.

Sergej Jakirovic's team are now winless in four, although they deservedly took the lead on 24 minutes when Joe Gelhardt found space to slot home his 14th goal of the season, before Tomoki Iwata added another fine strike to his personal collection in the latter stages to ensure Chris Davies' men halted their own slump away from St. Andrew's @ Knighthead Park.

Hull City 1-1 Birmingham City

The opening moments saw both sides trade chances. Iwata fired over from close-range for Blues after a free-kick was only half-cleared by the Tigers, whilst Mohamed Belloumi's low cross at the other end was intercepted by Christoph Klarer before it could reach Oli McBurnie.

The Algerian then brought a fine save out of James Beadle in the 18th minute after a neat interchange between himself and Gelhardt on the break, before the latter gave Hull the breakthrough midway into the first period after turning inside the box from a wide angle as his shot took a minor deflection off Phil Neumann.

It was almost two for the Tigers shortly after the half-hour mark, with Semi Ajayi and McBurnie having two efforts apiece inside the 18-yard box, with Beadle initially clawing the ball to safety ahead of Kai Wagner's final goal-line intervention.

In what was Blues' first chance for some time, Ibrahim Osman then saw a glancing header drift wide of the mark after Carlos Vicente had the beating of Paddy McNair before hanging up an inviting cross. The Spaniard then saw a low effort well-blocked by Matt Crooks five minutes before the interval.

More impressive work from Belloumi on the stroke of half-time could've landed the hosts an important second, but his cross was too quick for the likes of McBurnie and Liam Millar to turn home.

Birmingham then started the second period in the ascendancy, albeit without overly troubling Ivor Pandur, who comfortably gathered Jhon Solis' speculative effort.

Jakirovic's side then put a neat move together on the hour-mark with all of Gelhardt, Belloumi and Millar involved, although the latter eventually saw a first-time effort diverted behind for a corner.

Belloumi remained a constant threat throughout and continued to search for his third goal of the season, although a fizzing strike from 25 yards midway through the second half would cause no issues for Beadle in the Birmingham net.

Blues substitute, Demarai Gray, then forced Pandur into action with a curling effort as the visitors looked for an equaliser in the encounter's latter stages amid tension in the home crowd.

They would do exactly that 13 minutes from time when Iwata unleashed a stunning effort past Pandur after being afforded the time and space to shoot on the edge of the box.

With the pressure firmly on the Tigers to retake the lead, a free-kick only partially cleared by Davies' side fell at the feet of Ajayi, whose shot narrowly drifted wide of Beadle's bottom-right-hand corner with three minutes remaining.

After seven minutes of stoppage-time were allocated, Hull supporters thought a close-range free-kick from McBurnie was goal-bound after taking a deflection off the wall, but it was eventually turned behind for a corner, much to their frustrations.

Ultimately, Hull now have three matches to try and secure their position in the top six, as they are just two points clear of Wrexham and three in front of Derby County, whilst an impressive point for Blues moves them up to 14th on goal difference.

Player Ratings

Hull City

Ivor Pandur - 6

Lewie Coyle - 7

Semi Ajayi - 7

John Egan - 6.5

Paddy McNair - 6.5 (Giles 84" - 6)

Amir Hadziahmetovic - 6.5 (Joseph 87" - 6)

Matt Crooks - 6.5

Mohamed Belloumi - 7.5 (Hirakawa 84" - 6)

Joe Gelhardt - 7.5 (Dowell 75" - 6)

Liam Millar - 7 (Koumas 75" - 6)

Oli McBurnie - 6.5

Unused Subs: D.Phillips, C.Hughes, A.Famewo, E.Matazo

Birmingham City

James Beadle - 7

Bright Osayi-Samuel - 6.5 (Laird 50" - 6.5)

Phil Neumann - 7

Christoph Klarer - 7.5

Kai Wagner - 7

Tomoki Iwata - 8

Jhon Solis - 7

Carlos Vicente - 7 (Paik 95" - N/A)

Jay Stansfield - 6 (Ducksch 63" - 6)

Ibrahim Osman - 6 (Gray 63" - 6.5)

August Priske - 6 (Cochrane 95" - N/A)

Unused Subs: R.Allsop, J.Robinson, T.Doyle, P.Roberts

Sergej Jakirovic reacts as Hull City held by Birmingham City

Reacting to a frustrating afternoon for the Tigers, Jakirovic said: "I think we didn't play our best game today.

"Since the start, the first 20 minutes, we had lots of problems with second balls, and they had more control there. After that, we started to do something and scored a nice goal through Gelhardt and promising attacks through Belloumi.

"But we didn't find a good pass or an extra player in the box, and at half-time we tried to increase our duel success rate and win more second balls.

"I didn't feel any threats (from Birmingham) there, though. Of course they had more possession, but at the end we had three big chances," the Bosnian claimed.

"Before this (Birmingham) goal, we lost a cheap ball and we didn't run back to cover Iwata, who scored a fantastic goal.

"After that, like always, we pushed more to try and score a second goal. We had some situations, but unfortunately we didn't score.

"In the end, I can say this is a fair result from what I saw," Jakirovic claimed.

Chris Davies reacts to Birmingham City's draw at Hull City

Reacting to an impressive away point and performance, Davies said: "I thought we played well and certainly deserved what we got, which was a point.

"I thought, if anyone, over the course of the game deserved to win it, it could have been us with our general play.

"The attitude, commitment and fight from our side was evident again, and it's allowed us to stay in the game after going down in the game.

"I thought we made a good start," he claimed. "We were around their box a lot, had more touches in the opposition box and more shots on target than Hull did.

"I just felt we got into some good situations early on without capitalising, and then to concede was very disappointing as I didn't think there was much in the game.

"I said to the players at half-time that it's a game where 'you need to see it for what it is', and there's a lot more good than bad out there," Davies stated.

"I was happy with how they were playing in general, and I just encouraged them to stay positive and keep trying not to neglect the simplicity of what was needed, which was to play forward, get the ball wide and get crosses in.

"I thought our pressing game was good, they didn't have much possession, and I think we deserved the goal when it came.

"I was encouraged, again, by the performance, considering where we've been in some away games. To have that resilience and toughness to come back and put together what looked like another strong team performance was really pleasing."

Attendance

The attendance at the MKM Stadium this afternoon was 22,706 and included approximately 2,300 Birmingham City supporters.