Bolton Wanderers 1 Birmingham City 1

Last updated : 25 September 2004 By Footymad Previewer

Birmingham City grabbed a precious point after looking as if they were to fall easy victims to Bolton Wanderers.

Outplayed in the first half, they went behind to a 16th minute goal by Wanderers' Tunisian international defender Radhi Jaidi - his second in successive Premiership games - and looked set to be on the wrong end of a hammering.

Yet Steve Bruce's half-time teamtalk appeared to do the trick, Muzzy Izzet pulled them level in the 48th minute and they almost grabbed a winner in injury time when Julian Gray stabbed the ball only inches wide.

Wanderers were without their captain and talisman Jay-Jay Okocha. The Nigerian missed his first game of the season after suffering a groin strain.

Sam Allardyce's men were also looking for some revenge, after Birmingham did the double on them last season, but the man responsible for that, Mikael Forssell, who scored in both home and away games then, was an absentee after being ruled out with a serious knee injury.

That put the spotlight on Emile Heskey, who was the Blues sole attacker in the game with manager Steve Bruce packing five across midfield.

That blunted Wanderers' three-man strikeforce, although Henrik Pedersen was only inches away from accepting a good chance in the six-yard box early on.

That meant the first real opening came from a set-piece move, Ivan Campo firing in a 35-yard free-kick that Birmingham keeper Maik Taylor was glad to take at the second attempt.

Four minutes later, however, the keeper was left helpless as Wanderers took a 16th minute lead. Again the chance came from a set-piece, Bruno N'Gotty's free-kick being headed to the far post by Kevin Davies, where Jaidi chested the ball down before firing it into the corner of the net.

Wanderers had plenty of other opportunities to practice their free-kicks as the Birmingham defence were found guilty by referee Rob Styles of several niggling fouls.

That resulted in a yellow card for Robbie Savage in the 27th minute and the midfielder continued to walk a fine line with a number of questionable challenges.

Birmingham, however, got off to a flying start in the second half when Izzet fired them level three minutes after the restart. The Wanderers defence failed to handle Taylor's long goal-kick and the ball fell to Izzet, who knocked it past Jussi Jaaskelainen from eight yards out.

A linesman's flag ruled out an instant Wanderers reply as Pedersen fired the ball into the Birmingham net, but the game started to look far different to that of the opening 45 minutes.

Birmingham, sensing some unease within the Wanderers defence, committed more players forward and although Jaaskelainen was never really tested, there was enough of a threat to keep Wanderers' minds off any attacking ideas at the other end.

Gary Speed and sub Stelios Giannakopoulos tried to fire Wanderers back into the game, but saw their efforts go wide, while Birmingham brought on David Dunn to give Heskey more support upfront and they almost were rewarded in injury time when Gray put an effort inches wide.

Man of the Match: Gary Speed - Just about shaded it from his Welsh international team-mate Robbie Savage as both gave non-stop displays in the middle of the park.