Kieran Harnesses sub’s power to ruin Rooney’s day
WAYNE ROONEY got a right kick in the guts as he saw that elusive first win snatched from his grasp.
Sub Marcus Harness grabbed two late goals to pick Kieran Mckenna’s Ipswich up off the floor.
Rooney admitted it was hard to take after suffering defeats in his three games since taking over at Birmingham.
Rooney said: “Obviously it’s disappointing having gone two goals up but there’s lots to be positive about.
“We just couldn’t hang on but I can’t fault the lads for the way they went about it.
“Their subs made a big difference. Perhaps today the fans saw a glimpse of what we can do.”
Tractor Boys boss Mckenna said: “I’m really, really pleased because we found ourselves in a difficult situation. Big, big credit to the players. We stuck together and can take a lot from this.”
With little more than 10 minutes left, Birmingham looked like pulling off a real shock.
Rooney’s men were absolute value for their half-time lead and when they were gifted a second shortly after half-time, the visitors were well and truly gasping for air.
Before kick-off Brum hadn’t been given a prayer of upsetting a side who have lost only one league game all season. But they stormed into the lead in the 13th minute with a superb move started by a classy cross-field ball from Ethan Laird to send Juninho Bacuna racing down the left. Bacuna slipped a clever ball to the edge of the six-yard box and Jay Stansfield nipped in to take it round the keeper.
Birmingham doubled their lead in the 51st minute when Bacuna crossed and Cameron Burgess diverted the ball into his own net.
With John Ruddy making a number of key blocks Ipswich changed things around with what proved to be key substitutions.
Harness had only been on a couple of minutes when he pounced on Ruddy’s block and stabbed home.
And with a minute of normal time left, Harness struck again to rescue a point when he took a ball dropping out of the sky and shot into the corner. Blues fans left the ground happy with a totally unexpected point but at the same time almost feeling like they had witnessed a defeat. BIRMINGHAM: Ruddy 8; Laird 7 (Longelo (78) 5), Sanderson 7, Aiwy 7, Drameh 7; Bacuna 8, Sunjic 7; James 7 (Bielik (72) 5), Miyoshi 7 (Jutkiewicz (85) 5) Burke 7 (Dembele (72) 5); Stansfield 8 (Roberts (85) 4) IPSWICH: Hladky 5; Clarke 5, Woolfenden 6, Burgess 5, Davis 5 (Humphreys (87) 4); Morsy 5, Luongo 5 (Taylor (72) 5); Hutchinson 5, Chaplin 5 (Harness (72) 8), Broadhead 5 (Scarlett (72) 5); Hirst 5
(Ladapo (72) 6)
STAR MAN: Marcus Harness – Late sub’s double strike changed the game. REF: Lee Doughty 7