Birmingham City vs Ipswich Town match report: Christophe Berra's double takes the bounce out of Birmingham

Birmingham City 2 Ipswich Town 2

Clayton Donaldson hits the second goal for Birmingham on 63 minutes (PA)

Christophe Berra’s second goal of the match in stoppage time salvaged a point for Ipswich, who were contemplating a second away defeat in four days after David Edgar and Clayton Donaldson had given Birmingham the upper hand here tonight.

The former Wolves defender Berra, who had supplied Ipswich’s first equaliser to cancel out a 1-0 half-time lead for the home side, headed home a cross by Paul Anderson in the fourth of five added minutes to deflate what had until then been a buoyant St Andrew’s atmosphere as the home crowd prepared to celebrate the rarity of back-to-back home wins for Lee Clark’s team.

Both Conor Sammon and Daryl Murphy looked dangerous in the early exchanges and the visitors might have scored first had the latter not fluffed a chance from a miscued clearance by Jonathan Grounds. As it was, Birmingham led through Edgar after half an hour when Ipswich left the former Burnley centre back unmarked to head home a David Cotterill corner, won by Donaldson.

However, Birmingham’s defending was collectively much less impressive five minutes into the second half, when no one could deal with a low free-kick from the left by Paul Anderson which centre back Berra converted at the far post to put Ipswich level.

But Birmingham regained the lead in the 63rd minute, Wesley Thomas quickly turning a block by substitute Stephen Gleeson into a chance by sweeping the ball forward for Donaldson to chase, the striker bearing down at speed on the Ipswich goal before keeping his composure to slide the ball under Dean Gerken into the net.

After ending 10 months without a home Championship win with Saturday’s defeat of Brighton, Birmingham looked to have done enough to repeat the trick, but Berra had the last word.

Birmingham City (4-4-2): Randolph; Spector, Edgar, Hall, Grounds; Cotterill, Caddis, Davis (Gleeson, 60), Novak; Thomas (Johnstone, 81), Donaldson. Substitutes not used Doyle (gk), Gray, Duffy, Gleeson, Brown, Robinson, Johnstone.

Ipswich Town (3-4-1-2): Gerken; Chambers, Berra, Smith; Anderson, Skuse, Hyam, Mings; Tabb (Henshall, 80); Murphy (Bajner,80), Sammon (McGoldrick, 60). Substitutes not used Bialkowski, Parr, Hewitt, Bru, Henshall, Bajner, McGoldrick.

Referee R East (Wiltshire).