Wayne Rooney denied first victory as Birmingham City blow 2-0 lead against Ipswich Town

Post-match reaction from St Andrew's after Birmingham City 2-2 Ipswich Town in the Sky Bet Championship.

Transcript

00:00 Birmingham City 2, Ipswich Town 2 here at St. Andrews Stadium. Wayne Rooney denied

00:05 his first victory as Blues boss at the fourth time of asking. He thought he was

00:08 gonna get it, Blues were 2-0 up but a late fightback from the Tractor Boys and

00:12 tiring legs from Birmingham meant it finished 2-2 here and it could have

00:16 actually been probably 3-2 or 2-1 to Ipswich if it wasn't for an unfortunate

00:20 Cameron Burgess own goal. The Ipswich defender turning in a Juninho Bacuna

00:24 cross to make it 2-0 in the 51st minute. Before that Jay Stansfield did very well

00:28 to go around Ipswich goalkeeper Hladacki with some superb skill, swivelled and put

00:33 it in the goal for 1-0 in a 13th minute. It was a well-deserved lead as well at

00:38 half-time 1-0 to Blues and it just looked like a completely different team

00:42 under Rooney. 4-2-2-2 is what it looked like, a 4-4-2 diamond, a change of

00:48 system, only one full-back going forward as opposed to two which was a lot better.

00:52 They didn't look so open on the transition and they were dangerous. They

00:55 made Ipswich, who were fighting for automatic promotion, look regular but as

01:00 I said in that second half things did tire for Birmingham. I know that their

01:03 system is very demanding and I don't think Rooney's men are quite there yet

01:07 for their fitness and it showed. Some late substitutions were made, Ethan Laird

01:11 coming off made a big difference, Christian Bielik came on, Amalian

01:15 Longelo, they didn't really pick up the tempo of the match and Ipswich fought

01:18 back in just the final 15 minutes or so. They were clinical, they were merciless

01:23 and they claimed a very late point. I think it's a very good point

01:28 for Blues going into it but coming away from being 2-0 up it's

01:32 disappointing. But nonetheless the first point in the Rooney era, lots of

01:36 positives to take and I'll be going to speak to Wayne Rooney now as well as

01:40 Kieran McKenna in the post-match press conference. You can catch my player

01:43 ratings, my match report as well as all the post-match quotes on

01:46 BirminghamWorld.co.uk