Birmingham City vs Millwall. Sky Bet Championship.
St. Andrew's StadiumAttendance15,030.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Birmingham and Millwall at St Andrew's as John Eustace's Blues and Gary Rowett's Lions battled to a goalless draw on Wednesday night.
Wednesday 2 November 2022 23:03, UK
Goalkeeper John Ruddy's heroics ensured Birmingham secured a 0-0 draw against play-off chasing Millwall at St Andrew's.
In a game of few chances, Ruddy came to the hosts' rescue when he saved from clean-through substitute Tyler Burey in the 74th minute - just five days after his penalty save against QPR ensured Birmingham remained 2-0 ahead to win the game.
Ruddy helped his side stretch their unbeaten home record to five with the point keeping Birmingham in the top half of the Championship.
Millwall, whose manager Gary Rowett spent two years in charge at Birmingham from 2014-16, created the first two half chances - and both fell to attacking midfielder Zian Flemming.
The Lions' five-goal top-scorer floated a chip on top of the net from just inside the penalty area, then flashed a vicious low drive across the face of goal.
A quiet period erupted into a flashpoint in the 28th minute, when a clash between Birmingham striker Scott Hogan and Millwall midfielder Mason Bennett ended up with the latter crashing into the advertising hoardings beyond the near touchline.
In the ensuing melee, Blues midfielder Krystian Bielik was grounded but was able to resume after brief treatment.
A desperately quiet game suddenly burst into life in the 50th minute.
Birmingham's Tahith Chong skilfully wove his way around George Saville and Murray Wallace and teased Charlie Cresswell before Wallace brought him crashing to his knees on the edge of the box. The lunge earned the left-back the game's only booking.
From the resulting free-kick, on-loan Manchester United midfielder Hannibal Mejbri could only curl the ball high over the bar.
Millwall produced a rare threat when Billy Mitchell let fly with a first-time drive that flew straight at Ruddy.
Blues returned fire and Hogan, sliding in, was inches away from converting Maxime Colin's cross after the striker had released him on the right.
In the build-up, Saville, who was making his 350th career appearance, appeared to catch substitute Juninho Bacuna around the face in an off-the-ball incident.
But referee Graham Scott saw nothing wrong with what happened as he allowed play to continue and did not book the midfielder afterwards.
Then came Ruddy's save, after Dion Sanderson missed out to Burey on halfway.
In the end, Birmingham will be more relieved with the point, having failed to trouble Millwall goalkeeper George Long.
Birmingham's John Eustace: "I'm really pleased with that birthday present John sent me there! He said he was going to send me one and there you go. That was probably the only incident in the game where John had to make a save and that was really pleasing. I thought the back five defended the box brilliantly - from the first minute, Millwall were putting the ball under the crossbar and the lads' collective defending was really good.
"We know what Millwall do - they're very experienced and it's another test for us and something we have to learn from and move on with. I didn't feel we deserved to lose - I thought a point was a fair result. Both teams cancelled each other out. To pick a point up after such a great night on Friday beating QPR was really good."
Millwall's Gary Rowett: "It's the Championship and one big moment can make the difference between three points and one point. We had the big moment but we just couldn't quite take it. It was Tyler's run and he did brilliantly to get there in the first place. He possibly could have lifted it over John Ruddy or squared it to Andreas Voglsammer for a tap-in but I understood why he shot. Unfortunately for us, it didn't go in because up until that point, we really nullified Birmingham's threat.
"We had some good moments of control and I'd like a bit more quality but it was a difficult game where both teams were going at it. I think it was always going to be tough in the conditions - a big part of the evening was it actually stopped raining for a while. We knew it was going to be tough and I thought we defended really well. For Birmingham to have no chances on target and our keeper to not make a save was a brilliant effort."
