Chris Davies ‘sickened’ as Birmingham concede late Middlesbrough equaliser
Blues had come back from a goal down to lead 2-1 after 88 minutes.
Chris Davies says Birmingham’s 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough ended in “sickening” circumstances after a late James Beadle error cost his side two Championship points.
Blues had come back from a goal down to lead 2-1 after 88 minutes when Boro’s Sebastian Berhalter curled what looked like a poor free-kick into the penalty area.
Beadle seemed to have gathered easily, only to spill the ball. The goalkeeper felt he had regained possession but, under pressure from Kyle Joseph, it squirted loose for Adilson Malanda to equalise and give the visitors a point.
Davies backed Beadle and suggested his keeper had regained control.
“The players are telling me that they thought that he had the two hands on the ball,” he said.
“I haven’t seen the slowed down image of it, that would be the one to see but it’s scandalous if he’s had two hands on the ball and it’s been missed, that can’t happen.
“But it was a sickening way just from that deep set-piece, just whipped in one bounce. James has saved us many times and he’s a fantastic goalkeeper, he’s had a really good season.
“Like I said to him, these things happen. He knows, he’s disappointed with that, but he’s had a really good season.”
Boro counterpart Kim Hellberg was frustrated that his side lost control of a match which they led 1-0.
He said: “I think everyone knows we need to concede a little bit fewer goals, my mum at home watching the game can say that we need to concede fewer goals, but how are we doing that?
“The game today, for example, in that spell I don’t think we’re conceding chances, but we give away a massive amount of set plays from diving into tackles.
“We give away throw-ins instead of if we can clear it 50 yards higher up and then it’s not into the box.
“That frustrates me a lot. So there’s also managing those spells, absolutely, we have to work and do that better.
“We need to understand game management, how we suffer through those periods of time in a better way. I think it’s how do you do that? That’s the thing you work with and how do you summarise that to conceding fewer goals?
“So, in general there’s things to work on, it would be odd otherwise, and there’s things that are very, very good and a lot of praise for the players.”
Hellberg was especially happy to see his side take the lead in the 45th minute when Max Arfsten hammered home Amario Cozier-Duberry’s pass.
However, Blues responded well after the restart and levelled through Liam Millar 10 minutes into the second half, before the Canadian’s 59th-minute corner was headed back into the danger zone by Jay Stansfield, hit Riley McGree and went into the net. Malanda levelled late on.