Birmingham City 3-3 Burnley

Written by: Oliver Osborn (The Bluenose Bible)

Federico Macheda scored a stoppage time equaliser to pick up what could be a vital point for the Blues in a 3-3 draw with Burnley at St. Andrews.

The Italian scored twice after going five game without a goal as the home side managed to come back from a goal behind three time during the match.

Lee Clark surprised many with his team selection as Andrew Shinnie, Olly Lee and Tyler Blackett all started after being out in the wilderness in recent weeks.

But despite a solid start to the game from Birmingham, Burnley made the Blues’ defence pay for some poor defending through Dean Marney.

Jonathon Spector managed to beat Danny Ings in the air from Ross Wallace’s cross, but headed straight across the six yard box to gift Marney his third goal of the season.

Birmingham responded well, but couldn’t find the killer pass required to create chances in the final third.

The game changing moment came on the hour with Macheda replacing Lee to switch to two up front.

Just four minutes into his introduction, Macheda was already celebrating his fourth goal for the club since joining in January.

A long free kick into the box was flicked on and fell at the striker’s feet before he composed himself and fired home from close range.

The scores didn’t stay level for long with the Clarets scoring their second of the night three minutes later.

Another long free kick into the box resulted in a goal as unmarked Burnley defender Michael Duff rose well to head his side in front at the far post with a fine header.

But again Lee Clark’s men didn’t accept defeat and equalised again in some style.

Chris Burke’s cross was headed out of the box before it fell to in form midfielder, Emyr Huws, 25 yards out from goal.

The Welshman controlled the clearance on his chest and hit a superb volley into the bottom corner of Tom Heaton’s net.

Both teams then went chasing the victory, but neither could find the back of the net until Sam Vokes thought he’d won it with four minutes to go.

The former Wolves striker got ahead of Paul Robinson and fired high into the roof of the net from Junior Stanislas’ cross.

Blues were desperate to find another equaliser an kept pumping the ball into the box to substitute Nikola Zigic, but finally found their third with little time remaining.

A cross from the right was well flicked on by Lee Novak who found Macheda.

The Manchester United loanee helped the ball on with his shoulder and found the bottom right corner of the net.

It could be an important goal as we move closer to the final games and you could tell how much it meant to the players and staff by Lee Clark’s attack on the advertising board by the dug-out!

The point moves Blues to eight points above the relegation zone, while Burnley stay second and eight points ahead of Derby in third.

Birmingham City manager Lee Clark:

“Without a doubt we deserved that. That’s why the emotion was there at the end, I was celebrating like I was, for the fans, for the players.

“If they had come off that pitch losing the game, it would have been criminal for their efforts.

“We were brave, we created chances. They stuck to the game plan.

“But I am not accepting officials mocking my players. I was furious and I lost my temper.

“I was on the verge of going back up into the stand to speak to the assessor, but I probably would have just got pushed away about that.”

Burnley boss Sean Dyche:

“It was a fantastic point. We came off a massive win against Blackburn.

“People must have wondered if we could go again against Birmingham. Do they have that resilience? Do they have that belief? I thought it was there for all to see as we took the lead three times.

“The fitness of the players was superb. The will and demand was there.

“We didn’t play as well as we can but we came away with a valuable point and that is a great sign of how we have played this season.”

Starting line up: Randolph; Spector, Packwood, Robinson, Blackett; Huws, Adeyemi, Lee (Macheda 60′); Burke, Novak, Shinnie (Zigic 79′)

Subs not used: Doyle, Martin, Caddis, Rusnak, Ibe

Man of the match: Emyr Huws (again!)