Birmingham City 1 Ipswich Town 1
Veteran defender Steve Bruce struck a face-saving late equaliser as Birmingham scrambled to a draw against struggling Ipswich at St Andrews.
Ipswich, without an away win in the first division this season, had earlier shocked their hosts when Matty Holland opened the scoring in the 34th minute.
Birmingham, fielding four changes from the side involved in a disappointing goalless home draw with Oxford, struggled to get back on level terms despite dominating long spells of the game.
Their lack of a natural goal-scorer was evident as gangling striker Kevin Francis struggled to make an impact from good service by the likes of Jon McCarthy and Chris Marsden.
Ipswich appeared to be heading for a belated away win when Bruce moved up to join the attack and snatched the vital equaliser in the 81st minute.
Francis was the player who headed the ball on for the adventurous Bruce to score from close range.
The Bruce goal saved Birmingham from the embarrassment of a home defeat but does not hide the fact that the midlands club are in the middle of a poor run which has yielded just one win in their last nine games.
In this period they have notched only five goals to highlight the problem facing manager Trevor Francis. Ipswich obviously gained in confidence from their weekend win over Bury and in Holland they had an industrious player who fully deserved his fourth goal of the season.
Holland, signed for £800,000 from Bournemouth in the close season, took his goal well following a cross from Mick Stockwell.
The ball hit the post and bounced on to defender Gary Ablett but the linesman rules it was already over the line.
Bruce 
Ndlovu
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