Middlesbrough needed a late equaliser from Adilson Malanda to salvage a point and a 2-2 draw in the Sky Bet Championship at Birmingham. The defender was on hand to punish Birmingham goalkeeper James Beadle's handling error when the home side seemingly had the game won after coming from a goal down. Blues made a good start, creating a couple of chances to open the scoring.
The first came in the fourth minute when Jhon Solis dispossessed Malanda and was given the ball back by Tomoki Iwata. The Colombian turned and dragged his shot narrowly wide. Fourteen minutes later the hosts went from one end of the field to the other, freeing Carlos Vicente down the right.
The winger back-heeled to Bright Osayi-Samuel, who picked out Luis Vazquez. After last weekend's horror miss at Derby, the Argentine did at least put his header on target but too close to Radek Vitek who tipped over. Boro grew into the game with Amario Cozier-Duberry causing Birmingham huge problems down the right.
The Brighton loanee should have scored nine minutes before the break when Myles Peart-Harris picked him out with a pull-back but he scooped his shot over the bar. The 21-year-old's influence grew and it was no surprise when Malanda hit him with a sweeping, 45th-minute diagonal and he weaved his way into the area to set up Max Arfsten. The American fired first-time into the top corner.
Chris Davies' side responded well after the restart and levelled 10 minutes in when Malanda lost possession to Iwata who then invited Solis to surge into the area. Just as the midfielder looked to be running out of angle, Liam Millar popped up to fire home his first Blues goal. Four minutes later the home side were in front when Millar's deep corner was headed back into the six-yard box by Jay Stansfield.
The ball pinballed around and eventually went in off Riley McGree. With 20 minutes to go Iwata went close when he popped up at the near post to glance a Millar cross just over the bar. The visitors pressed and made attacking substitutions with Tommy Conway, Kyle Joseph and Jeremy Sarmiento and they did push Birmingham on to the defensive.
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