Gardner is denied

NOT even the Gardner could make this stalemate bloom.

Birmingham midfielder Gary Gardner (above) was the standout performer on a day when graft and resilience ruled over imagination and creativity, and the only talking point was how long the home side took at long throws.

Gardner even managed to tuck the ball past Josef Bursik in the dying seconds, but the effort was ruled offside, and it was – by miles.

His team-mates were too often on a different wavelength at the end of a week which has also been poor on the PR front for Birmingham. How a win would have lightened the mood caused by the building work which forced a crowd figure of just 10,000, and season-ticket holders requested to relocate. Instead the post-match chat was a grumble from Michael O’neill and a smiling response from counterpart Lee Bowyer when told the Stoke boss had timed the throw-ins at 30 seconds.

Potters chief O’neill said: “We did not do enough to win the game.

“It’s a point gained because it would have been easy to lose on a long throw.

“We can’t control it but the referee can. We have 30 seconds for every throw-in and then get three minutes on the end.”

Birmingham gaffer Bowyer replied: “It wasn’t an instruction from me.

“If you’ve got a centre-half who has got to run or walk to take a throw-in, he can’t keep running. He’s got to have a breather, he’s a human being. I thought it was a fair result.”

BIRMINGHAM CITY: Sarkic 7; Colin 6, Roberts 7, Dean 7, Pedersen 7, Bela 5; Woods 6, Sunjic 6, Gardner 8; Hogan 5 (Aneke 65, 5), Jutkiewicz 6 (Leko 70, 5).

Unused subs: Trueman, Friend, Sanchez, Mcgree, Castillo.

STOKE CITY: Bursik 6; Smith 6, Ostigard 7, Souttar 7, Wilmot 6, Tymon 6; Powell 6, Allen 6, Clucas 7; Surridge 6 (Brown, 75, 5), Fletcher 6 (Thompson, 90)

Unused subs: Davies, Fox, Batth, Doughty, Ince.

MAN OF THE MATCH: Gary Gardner. Showed imagination and was most creative player.

REFEREE: Gavin Ward 6.