Birmingham grab last-gasp victory at Blackburn

Jay Stansfield scored his second goal in a week for Birmingham

Birmingham City came from a goal down to grab a last-gasp 2-1 victory against Blackburn Rovers in the Championship at Ewood Park.

Substitute Lyndon Dykes' close-range strike eight minutes into stoppage time gave the visitors their first league win of the campaign following their promotion from League One last season.

That capped a dramatic conclusion to the game, which saw Jay Stansfield level for Blues from the penalty spot in the last minute of normal time.

Todd Cantwell had volleyed Blackburn in front early in the second half, but on the day that Rovers celebrated the club's 150th anniversary, Blues hit back to spoil the party.

The first half provided little goalmouth action at either end.

The visitors, backed by over 7,000 travelling supporters, had the best opportunity of breaking the deadlock in the first period when Alex Cochrane's stinging drive from outside the box was well kept out by Rovers keeper Balazs Toth.

Five minutes after the break, captain Cantwell sweetly volleyed home the opener from an angle after the visitors failed to clear Rovers' first corner of the match.

Cantwell's goal spurred the game into life and soon after the home side could have doubled their advantage when Ryan Hedges' pinpoint cross found the head of Augustus Kargbo but his effort drifted just wide of the far post.

In response, Demarai Gray flashed a long-range strike wide from just outside the area as Birmingham's attacks began to carry more menace.

Rovers' Ryan Alebiosu was then stretchered off in a serious-looking collision before his replacement, Scott Wharton, rose highest to meet a Cantwell corner but he missed the target.

In the 88th minute, Birmingham were awarded a penalty when half-time substitute Ethan Laird was adjudged to have been fouled in the box.

Stansfield stepped up and whipped his penalty into the side-netting in front of the travelling fans to level the scores.

Rovers could have nicked it themselves near the end when Makhtar Gueye, deep into 11 minutes of additional time, forced a terrific save from Blues keeper Ryan Allsop with his header.

Allsop's save proved to be vital when, at the other end, Gray burst down to the by-line and crossed for Dykes, who guided his finish into the corner to snatch the three points for the visitors.

'A massive three points' - reaction

Blackburn boss Valarien Ismael told BBC Radio Lancashire:

"It is a tough one, I am shocked, football can be cruel. We played a good game, and we knew at half-time we needed to put more pressure on them, and that gave us the goal.

"Everything was in place and then we dealt with a three-v-one situation very badly. Then we get to 11 minutes extra time and we managed 10 of those perfectly.

"It's terrible, but this loss is on us, we made two terrible mistakes and we have to be better on the set-piece positioning.

"There were a lot of positives today, their shots were not really dangerous, we had the right structure and we got the goal we wanted.

"But football is details, and we have some questions to answer internally to make sure we deal with these situations better next time."

Birmingham manager Chris Davies told BBC Radio WM:

"It is a massive three points. I thought we were the better team throughout the game, we were looking solid and didn't give much away.

"I thought the game would open up in the second half, but to come from a goal down with five minutes to go away from home and win it is something pretty special.

"We are not conceding a lot of territory and chances, we are looking really strong in these games.

"I nearly made the changes earlier, but I thought we had creativity on the pitch, so I let the boys grow back into the game, and I was pleased with how we played the game and the contribution of the guys who came on.

"The desire of our team in the final few minutes was what I loved. We were bursting forward and when the game opened up we ran and ran."