CAVALRY EMERGE FROM
NICK Powell and Tyrese Campbell came off the bench to rescue a point for Stoke City in a frustrating home match.
Stoke had much the better of possession and territory against a disciplined Birmingham side but, not for the first time in the league this season, struggled to translate that into goals.
Steven Fletcher hit the angle of bar and post and his teammates went close a couple of times but it looked like they would be made to rue their misses.
Birmingham took the lead when Harlee Dean rose highest to head home a corner deep into the second half and it looked all-too like a repeat of the previous league defeat to Bristol City.
But this time, the cavalry emerged in substitutes Campbell and Powell, with the former setting up the latter to squeeze in a low shot via a deflection.
It wasn’t the result that Stoke had wanted – and the disappointment was still evident – but it’s one defeat from the first eight games in league and cup.
Michael O’neill said: “We’ve lost one game in the period we’ve played four league games and four cup games. From that point of view we have to be relatively pleased.
“We would have liked more league points, let’s be honest. Draws aren’t exactly what you need. If we’d finished today with seven league points as opposed to five, we would have been a lot happier.
“But we don’t have them so when we get back we have to find a way to build a wee bit more momentum, find a way to get points.
“This league is so difficult. There are such fine margins in the game. If we’d lost this we’d have been scratching our heads how it happened considering the dominance we had.
“But that’s the nature of it and if you lose a goal from a corner you give yourselves a difficult task.
“It’s been a little bit of a pattern and last year in
particular a poor start made life difficult. We have to make sure we break that habit.”
Josh Tymon was rewarded for his form with a starting shirt at left wing-back but Nathan Collins was missing after suffering a fracture in his left hand at Aston Villa.
There was no place in the squad for Bruno Martins Indi or Sam Vokes.
Tough calls for the manager
on a thrice-weekly basis. Billy Mckinlay explained in the build-up: “There’s seven changes from Thursday night and hopefully we’ll see freshness and energy in the team. That’s what we’re looking for.
“There are plenty of decisions to be made at the moment on the back of good performances so inevitably we will disappoint some players, not only not being
in the starting XI but also on the substitutes’ bench.
“It’s not easy and the players have to deal with that disappointment - but there are plenty of games. We have three a week until Christmas outside international breaks so everyone will have to play a part and I’m sure they will.”
Birmingham were a different beast to the team which had been pretty much pushovers back in July and it was easy to see why they had only let in one league goal before this game.
They started brightly and aggressively, without making Adam Davies panic too much. Stoke were trying to be too intricate in response and gave possession back to the visitors too many times in the opening stages.
But around the 20-minute mark, Stoke got more onto the front foot, led by Steven