Birmingham City vs Blackburn Rovers. Sky Bet Championship.
St. Andrew's StadiumAttendance21,869.
Che Adams scores twice either side of goals from Charlie Mulgrew and Danny Graham in entertaining game at St Andrew's
Saturday 23 February 2019 19:02, UK
Birmingham striker Che Adams added to his growing reputation by scoring twice in a 2-2 home draw against dogged Blackburn.
Rovers had to show commendable spirit after Adams put Birmingham in the driving seat in the first half. They deservedly equalised in the 52nd minute when their veteran skipper Charlie Mulgrew curled home direct from a corner, with Danny Graham then putting them ahead in the 82nd minute.
But Adams, the subject of interest from Scotland under former Blues manager Alex McLeish, scored his 21st goal of the season in the 83rd minute to salvage a draw.
Birmingham came close to opening their account in the ninth minute when Jota's free-kick into the heart of Blackburn's defence resulted in Rovers' Spanish goalkeeper David Raya making a top-quality save to keep out a Lukas Jutkiewicz header.
Raya soon showed his quality again, diving to stop a Maxime Colin shot. The ball ran towards Blackburn's net only for the alert Raya to scoop the ball off the line.
Birmingham had their tails up and in the 16th minute their ace marksman Adams notched the opening goal. Gary Gardner won the ball off Amari'i Bell and slipped a pass down the channel to Adams, who smartly scored with a low cross shot to the right of Raya.
Blackburn had little choice but to drop back on the defensive to contain Birmingham, though they still carried a threat and in the 31st minute, leading scorer Graham was only denied an equaliser by a diving save from Lee Camp after the home defence had been caught napping.
Seven minutes into the second half Mulgrew produced a perfect corner from the right which went into the net despite several Birmingham players on the line.
Raya produced another quality save from Kerim Mrabti while another Birmingham substitute, Connor Mahoney, also went close.
Graham then brought the game alight by putting Blackburn into an 82nd-minute lead with a low angled shot only for Adams to pop up a minute later to score from a narrow angle.
Garry Monk: "We had Blackburn where we wanted them in the first half-hour. We were doing everything right with Adams' goal and then allowed them to wrestle the initiative off us. They went in at half-time with belief.
"They came out and then the game became 50-50 after they obtained their equaliser. But we conceded two bad goals and you have to give credit to their determination.
Tony Mowbray: "We didn't start the game. The first 20 minutes was a non-event. There was a little encouragement in the closing stages of the first half and then Charlie Mulgrew got the equaliser direct from a corner.
"That is 23 goals for Charlie over the last two seasons which is not bad for a central defender. We then took the lead and my dressing room is frustrated we didn't get three points."
