Demarai Gray’s 99th-minute equaliser preserved Birmingham City’s long unbeaten home run and denied troubled Sheffield Wednesday victory.
The Owls, whose players found out ahead of the game that they would not be paid on time once again this month, had bounced back from a goal down to lead deep in added time against a Blues side which has now not been beaten in the league at St Andrew’s for 29 games.
Jay Stansfield’s sharp finish looked like making that a formality as the home side dominated, but a triple defensive error handed Jamal Lowe an equaliser.
Teenage striker George Brown scored his second goal in three games to seemingly earn Wednesday a remarkable win, until late Birmingham pressure ended with Gray rifling the ball through a crowded box and in off the underside of the bar.
Wednesday’s players will now have been paid late five times in the past seven months amid ongoing financial problems at Hillsborough and the travelling fans might have feared a dip in morale from their team.
But the Owls seem to let every setback galvanise them, and even though they were dominated in the first half they hung in with a performance of real grit.
It seemed like Birmingham’s unbeaten home league run, which stretched back to April of last year, would certainly carry on as Stansfield snapped up a goal just nine minutes in.
The striker won a 50-50 challenge with defender Harry Amass and when the ball ballooned into the air he half-volleyed it crisply beyond Ethan Horvath to open the scoring.
The home side looked comfortable but a sequence of mistakes cost them an equaliser.
Eiran Cashin, in for the suspended Jack Robinson, gave the ball away in midfield and after Svante Ingelsson lobbed it hopefully towards Lowe, Cashin compounded his error by failing to cut it out despite being first to the ball.
To make matters worse, Lowe’s shot lacked conviction but goalkeeper Ryan Allsop’s weak attempt to save allowed it to drop into the net.
Horvath pulled off a fine save from Stansfield as Birmingham sought to restore their lead but with 14 minutes remaining Barry Bannan provided a moment of quality.
Booed by home fans for his Aston Villa past, Bannan delivered a delightful free kick into the box and 19-year-old Brown – promoted to the first team this season amid a summertime exodus of players – sweetly volleyed home to give Wednesday the lead.
The visitors fought valiantly to defend the lead, with Ernie Weaver producing a heroic block to deny Gray, whilst Allsop left his goal to join the attack at set-pieces as Birmingham attacked relentlessly.
With the indicated eight minutes of added time already up, it seemed Wednesday were set for three points but when the ball fell to Gray again, he hammered a rising drive which crashed in off the underside of the bar.
