Paul Furlong's 13th goal of the season severely dented Ipswich's promotion
hopes in a nerve jangling top of the table game at St Andrews.
The Suffolk club suffered another dose of promotion jitters but it took an
amazing 50-yard run by Bryan Hughes to pierce their usually reliable defence.
Ipswich, who have now picked up only four points from five games, had
previously appeared to be the more likely winners but the inspiration of Hughes
to set up Furlong proved to be the Suffolk club's downfall.
It will now be next Saturday before the final promotion place is decided.
Ipswich, a point behind second placed Bradford, play Sheffield United at home
while the Yorkshire club visit Wolves.
Ipswich played with more determination and purpose than Birmingham in a
goal-less first half.
Birmingham, who have already made the play-offs, had a lucky let off when
Jamie Clapham's cross was sliced just wide of his own goal by Michael Johnson.
In the following minute Martin Grainger came to Birmingham's rescue when he
cleared James Scowcroft's header off the line.
The seemingly watertight Ipswich defence was again impregnable in the opening
45 minutes and accorded Birmingham's lacklustre attack few opportunities to
shine.
With skipper Tony Mowbray in such commanding form Ipswich's star goalkeeper
Richard Wright came under very little pressure in this period.
Ipswich maintained their strong attacking policy in a bid to produce the
elusive opening goal but on the hour everything turned sour and the player who
did all the damage was Hughes.
He picked up a lose ball inside his own half near the dugout and set off on a
dazzling run which developed into what appeared to be a slow motion sequence as
he side-stepped several lunging tackles.
Manuel Thetis and Mowbray moved in but Hughes glided passed both players and
then went around Wright only to fumble his shot.
Furlong, however, was on hand to push the ball into the net from a couple of
feet to the utter dismay of the large Ipswich following.
In a frantic finish Ipswich were again denied when Steve Robinson cleared a
Scowcroft header off the line at the far post.
In this period substitute Dele Adebola, who took over from Furlong immediately
after the former Chelsea player had opened the scoring, saw Clapham clear his
effort off the line.
Teams:
Birmingham: Poole, Rowett, Grainger, Hyde (Purse 89), Holdsworth,
Johnson, McCarthy, Robinson, Furlong (Adebola 62), Hughes,Bradbury (Ndlovu 79).
Booked: Hyde.
Goals: Furlong 60.
Ipswich: Wright, Wilnis, Thetis (Stockwell 61), Clapham, Mowbray,
Venus, Dyer, Holland, Johnson, Scowcroft, Magilton.
Subs Not Used: Naylor, Cundy.
Att: 27,685
Ref: R Pearson (Peterlee).
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