Birmingham vs Ipswich RECAP: George Hirst scores dramatic late penalty following handball drama after Jay Stansfield's opener

We're wrapping up our coverage for tonight. Thanks for sticking with me.

Former Ipswich captain Luke Chambers, speaking to Sky Sports:

They'll be very pleased they've nicked a point. But I don't think they'll be pleased with their performance individually and collectively. There's a lot of work for them to do.

Clinton Morrison, speaking on Sky Sports:

You can't raise your hands. We've seen it before. The letter of the law is once you raise your hand like that, I think the referee probably gets it right.

Birmingham (4-2-3-1): Allsop 6; Osayi-Samuel 7.5, Neumann 7, Klarer 6.5, Cochrane 6.5; Paik 8, Iwata 7; Gray 6 (Laird 83), Stansfield 7.5 (Dykes 83), Anderson 7.5 (Gardner-Hickman 89); Kyogo 7.5 (Doyle 77). Subs not used: Beadle, Bielik, Leonard, Willumsson, Cashin.

Scorers: Stansfield 55

Booked: Osayi-Samuel, Paik

Manager: Chris Davies 7

Ipswich (4-2-3-1): Palmer 6; Johnson 6 (Young 68, 6), O’Shea 6, Greaves 6, Davis 6; Taylor 6.5, Matusiwa 5 (Humphreys 85); Ogbene 5.5 (Broadhead 69, 6), Szmodics 6 (Chaplin 69, 6), Clarke 5 (Al-Hamadi 79); Hirst 6. Subs not used: Walton, Kipre, Woolfenden, Barbrook

Scorers: Hirst 90+4

Booked: Taylor, Matusiwa

Manager: Kieran McKenna 6

Referee: Andrew Kitchen 5

Attendance: 27,508

FA charge incoming for Blues, maybe, for the stuff chucked on the pitch, and possibly for both teams for the ruckus after the penalty.

Did Davies give up too much ground too early?

Maybe, but still a very encouraging performance from Blues. Ipswich offered very little. I imagine they'll feel happier in September when the window is closed.

That's a case of nighttime robbery. Birmingham deserved all three points but were made to settle for just the one after that late drama.

So ends a seriously frantic, needly Championship opener.

It's so good to have it back. I missed it.

Just a minute or two left to play. Time for a winner, perhaps?

The whistle blows after a cheap foul on Laird. I think that will be that.

Ridiculous from the home fans to throw objects on to the pitch after the goal but that really wasn't smart from Hirst, to celebrate like that. Score the penalty, job done.

Tempers have boiled over, but Ipswich won't care one jot.

They're back level with their first shot on target all night.

Birmingham players certainly took exception to the celebrations after that goal and it looked like objects were tossed from the crowd.

It all started when Chaplin booted the ball into the stands, and Klarer reacted furiously. The former was booked after that fracas.

A BOLT OUT OF THE BLUE FOR THE TRACTOR BOYS!

So, so cool from Hirst, who stepped up, waited for Allsop to commit and then planted his spot-kick to the other side.

WOW! Lydon Dykes has been penalised for handball. A hush has descended over St Andrew's. The crowd can't believe it.

For me, this is incredibly harsh. Young pumped it into the box and Greaves nodded the hanging ball onto the arm of Dykes.

He knew absolutely nothing about that.

Time is rapidly running out for Ipswich, who haven't recorded a single effort on target so far tonight. That's just not good enough.

The most eye-catching thing about Birmingham is they just look like a Champ team. Keeping everyone in this crowd on board when they hit a sticky patch will be key but if they can, this won't be an easy venue for anyone.

Dykes looked to power into the box to meet a long ball down the inside-left, but he was beaten to the punch by Palmer.

Well, well, well. The board has gone up.

We will have a minimum of EIGHT additional minutes.

There have been a fair number of stoppages, to be fair...

Gardner-Hickman has been brought on for the final few minutes.

Birmingham are almost at the finish line.

I don't think Allsop has had to make a save all night.

This has been very limp from Ipswich, who are, don't forget, one of the hot favourites to earn promotion back to the Premier League.

Ipswich haven't been able to build up sustained momentum but they've got real quality on the pitch, especially up top.

The ball was whipped in for Hirst at the back post but he mistimed his leap into the air and guided a header over the crossbar.

Kieran McKenna has rolled the dice again with time ticking down.

Humphreys is on for Matusiwa.

Two more changes for the hosts.

Stansfield and Gray have been applauded off.

On come Laid and Dykes.

I've not seen too much from Ipswich as they look to find a way back into this game. Birmingham have been much more aggressive.

As I say that, Iwata takes aim but crashes one off target from distance.

Into the final 10 minutes now.

Ipswich have also made another change.

Clarke has made way for Al-Hamadi.

This is a bit of a surprise.

Kyogo's race is run. He's been replaced by Doyle.

The forward was electric all evening. Fair play.

Another first for the Championship season: silly arm-waving to gee up the fans, courtesy of Kyogo.

Very sadly, the first of many such gestures between now and May. (I'm not a grump, honestly).

Folks, it's getting tasty out there. Kyogo got the better of Greaves and won a free-kick before pumping his arms around to fire up the crowd.

Then, Stansfield was fouled by Matusiwa, who has, of course, already been carded. I can feel the frustration boiling.

Paik went into the book after going in late on Taylor in midfield.

Warm applause* and a even few cheers** from the Birmingham fans for former Aston Villa player Ashley Young as he replaces Ben Johnson.

Certainly wasn't expecting that.

*Maybe not

**Just kidding

Young was involved straight away and arched a delicious ball toward the back post. Neumann was able to steer a header back to Allsop.

Ashley Young has been introduced to resounding boos.

Conor Chaplin and Wrexham target Nathan Broadhead are also on.

Johnson, Ogbene and Szmodics have made way.

Ipswich, chasing that equaliser, are about to turn to their bench.

The atmosphere at St Andrew's is crackling nicely. I'm surprised the game hasn't properly boiled over, if I'm honest.

It's been 90 per cent possession for Ipswich since that goal.

This is much better from Ipswich, who are turning the screw.

Davis sent in a corner from the far side and found O'Shea, but he could only head off target. A loud, sarcastic cheer went up.

Please excuse this rather cheeky plug...

Hello. Ipswich have joined the party.

All of a sudden, they flooded forward with numbers around the box but Hirst and Szmodics couldn't fashion a chance.

Work to do.

I'd be intrigued to see Kyogo alongside a classic, tall, strong centre-forward – the type coming back into fashion, in fact. He's lightweight, of course, but wow, is he sharp.

That changes everything for Ipswich, who must push forward now.

Kieran McKenna does not look like a happy man down there.

ST ANDREW'S HAS ERUPTED WITH NOISE!

A long clearance from Palmer was nodded back forward by Osayi-Samuel, releasing Kyogo through on goal.

His deft finish came back off the far post but Stansfield was there to apply the finishing touch into the empty net.

Birmingham really do deserve that.

The ball was fizzed through the lines for Iwata, who received with his back to goal and turned cleverly into space. He's been superb.

Iwata was involved again as he looked for Kyogo lurking inside the box, only for Greaves to get there and put the ball behind.

The set piece came out to Paik just outside the area, but he swung out a leg and cracked well wide, over to the left.

Not the best effort in the world, that one.

Ooooo, almost for Iwata. The midfielder did superbly to seize upon a loose ball just inside the box before pulling the trigger.

His half-volley fizzed just off target.

Full transparency, my laptop crashed. But hey, I'm back.

We're about three minutes into the second half.

Neither side made changes during the break.

I reckon so, but Sky Sports' pundits are clearly split...

Clinton Morrison

You can see why the referee's done it, but I think it should have been a goal.

Curtis Davies

For me it's a foul. There's not a lot of contact and it seems soft, but it's straight in the back.

Luke Chambers:

If he goes for the ball and tries to head it, fair enough. But he goes straight into his back and it's a clear foul for me.

He might have snatched at his half-chances during that half, but have no doubt, Jay Stansfield will score plenty of goals this season.

Daily Mail Sport were lucky enough to have a lengthy sit-down with the striker to discuss all manner of topics, including dealing with family tragedy, Tom Brady's influence and his dreams of playing for England.

To read Tom Collomosse's unmissable interview, click the link.

The club X feed described that first-half as 'pulsating'.

I wouldn't go that far myself, but it's a really interesting game. You can see how Ipswich miss Delap's running power and ability to challenge the entire width of a back line. Hirst is doing a decent job but they need other options – hence the move for Chuba Akpom.

Bloody hell. That flew by.

We may not have had bundles of chances but we have had some lovely, flowing football and a good bit of needle out there.

All of the ingredients are in place for a fizzing second half, but will we get the breakthrough? Birmingham have come the closest for me.

The scoreline could have looked very different at the halfway mark if Kyogo's goal had been allowed to stand.

Taylor had to do better with that. Johnson bent one in from right, but the midfielder could only shoulder wide of the target.

We're now halfway through two minutes of added time.

I don't think I've mentioned Gray at all in this half.

Well, I have now. He took the resulting free-kick but his effort was easy pickings for Palmer after it bent gently around the wall.

I think we call these a professional foul.

Matusiwa has gone into the book after allowing Anderson to dance beyond him before pulling him down to the ground.

Somewhere, Sam Morsy will be grinning.

Anderson stood up another inviting cross from the left and Osayi-Samuel raced in, looking to get on the end of it.

Greaves did well to beat him there before hooking away, but the flag was up for offside. Correct decision that time.

Two bites at the cherry for the hosts, but they didn't convert either.

Birmingham pounced on a second ball in midfield and found Anderson, whose weak effort was straight along the floor and at Palmer.

But the danger wasn't over there as Stansfield benefited from another high turnover. He then pulled his strike comfortably wide, however.

Sure enough, Szmodics is OK and play is back underway.

Just before this break in play, Anderson had moved to the right with Gray moving to the Blues left.

They're going back to their starting roles now but Anderson on the right would be no bad idea, as he'd give Osayi-Samuel more protection than Gray is doing.

Szmodics has gone down and is receiving treatment. He looks OK.

Kieran McKenna is using the break in play to hurriedly dish out some instructions to his players, who weren't at the races for 20 minutes.

Oh, to be a fly on the wall along that touchline.

Leif Davis looked offside to me but the flag didn't go up, catching Birmingham napping a little across the backline.

The full back wriggled in behind and looked to find the far corner with the outside of his boot, but he could only shank it across the face.

Decent opening, that. The chances are flowing now.

Birmingham built up some sustained pressure around the edge of the Ipswich box, and Iwata punched through the lines for Stansfield.

He shifted into space around 15 yards out before clattering over.

Stansfield was leaning back and had to do better.

Half an hour into the season and we've had our first foul throw.

Johnson was the culprit as he looked to toss one in.

Kyogo is looking very sharp out there. The ball was dropped onto his toes on the edge of the box, but O'Shea was there to mop up.

I have to agree with Tom, who is spot on with his assessment.

Ipswich are indeed growing into this game.

Had that Szmodics effort gone in, it wouldn't have reflected the balance of play but Ipswich have crept back into it a little. They're trying to engage Blues higher up the pitch and ultimately that drew the error. Blues need more from the new boys on their right, Osayi-Samuel and Gray.

Wow. Allsop is one lucky man. Ipswich hassled and harried their opponents as they looked to play out and forced a mistake.

It was a poor pass out from the goalkeeper and Szmodics sensed the danger, pouncing on the ball before crashing one wide.

There was plenty of power behind that, but he had to hit the target.

Stansfield did well to find Kyogo down the inside-left channel, and the new man turned sharply before firing into the side netting.

Ipswich then took an age over the restart. The anger is rising.

A sloppy mix-up at the back for Birmingham sparked panic, but Neumann did superbly to get across and clatter the ball away.

O'Shea went long right down the middle and poor communication allowed Szmodics to wriggle through, into the box.

He was about to shoot when Neumann appeared out of nowhere.

Oooooo. There's our first flashpoint.

It was all a bit scrappy when Taylor and Osayi-Samuel bundled into each other, sending them tumbling onto the advertising hoarding.

They squared up and had to be separated. Both were booked.

The referee this evening is named Andrew Kitchen. I was going to make a 'hotting up' joke, but Sky Sports already got there first.

Either way, he's been whistle happy in these opening 15 minutes or so, and that hasn't suited either side, really.

Tomoki Iwata and – in particular – Paik Seung-ho have made a good start. Unlike Ipswich's midfield pair, these two have an excellent understanding. Iwata mops up everything and Paik gets them moving again.

It's a nice combo, so far.

It's the opening game of the season and we've already got pundits complaining that football has gone soft. I love it.

To be fair, a few Ipswich players have gone down a little easily, much to the disapproval of Chris Davies on the touchline.

Ipswich have started so sluggishly. Johnson crashing an attempted switch out of play neatly summed up how poor they've been.

The hosts have enjoyed a whopping 84 per cent of the ball.

That definitely wasn't a foul for me. The home crowd are raging, and you can understand why. Greaves hit the deck far too easily.

Undeterred, Birmingham came forward through Cochrane, but his devilish cross from the left didn't find a team-mate.

This is very harsh. Birmingham had the ball in the net but it won't count after the referee blew his whistle. I'm not sure there was enough in it...

Greaves allowed the ball to bounce outside of the box and Kyogo went up with him before making slight contact with his opponent.

Kyogo then found himself through and looped an inch-perfect lofted finish over the head of the onrushing Palmer.

On Sky Sports, Don Goodman said it was a 'really poor decision'.

Ipswich finally slung the ball into the box from halfway and Greaves won the first touch, before Clarke was penalised for a foul.

Looked soft to me, that.

Barely five minutes into the Champ season and we have our first manager v fourth official rant.

Ipswich clearly trying to deflate the crowd by taking their time over restarts. Chris Davies spots this, thinks the officials haven’t and lets poor John Busby have it.

Chris Davies went absolutely ballistic after Johnson took an age over a throw-in right in front of the dugouts.

Ipswich are hoping to take the sting out of the occasion.

No messing around from the hosts, who have picked up exactly where they left off when they cruised to the League One title last season.

For Ipswich, it's about steadying the ship and finding a foothold. They're looking to get their foot on the ball and slow the pace down.

It's been a confident start from Birmingham.

They moved the ball very well from side to side before Anderson's searching cross from the right drifted straight out of play.

PEEEEP! We're off and running, and so is the Championship.

It's a gorgeous, sunny evening at this historic ground.

Here come the players! We've got fireworks and pyro, the works.

Right, let's get some score predictions. Drop them in the comments.

Wow. St Andrew's is absolutely rocking.

It's so good to have football back.

This is your ten-minute warning, folks. Strap yourselves in.

Birmingham flexing their muscles again before kick-off here, introducing Marvin Duksch, their latest signing from Werder Bremen, to the crowd. The forward, 31, has signed a three-year deal – more evidence Blues are in a hurry.

Birmingham boss Chris Davies believes Ipswich are one of the hot favourites to be promoted back to the Premier League.

Well, according to Opta, he's bang on the money.

Their predicted table for the end of the season has Ipswich in second place, beaten to the top by Sheffield United.

The Blues, meanwhile, have been tipped to finish 12th.

No Tom Brady in the crowd at St Andrew's today but chairman Tom Wagner is here. His motto is 'If you can't say it, you can't do it' and he believes it's a matter of when, not if, they reach the Premier League.

Daily Mail Sport was granted unprecedented access to the Blues' pre-season training camp to find out exactly why their ambitious US owners believe the Premier League is only a year away.

Tom Collomosse explored how they have beaten top-flight clubs to new signings, their tech gurus from Facebook and Microsoft, and a £2billion megaproject designed to blow their rivals away.

Trust me, this is worth the read.

Just click the link below to take a look via Mail+.

Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna, speaking to Sky Sports:

It's a positive. It reflects we've done some good things over the last few years. In the end it doesn't mean very much, you have to earn the right every game, every week.

There is a lot of work ahead of us. We are ready for the challenge. It's not alien to us. In League One we were one of the promotion favourites.

Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna, speaking to Sky Sports:

Omari's been ill. He trained with us earlier in the week but he picked up a throat infection and he's not available.

Hutchinson has, of course, attracted Premier League attention.

TOM COLLOMOSSE: The ping of a smartphone is perhaps the most familiar sound in the life of today's footballer.

Whether from friends, family, team-mates, coaches, club officials or agents, there is virtually constant demand for their attention.

For Birmingham City players, however, sometimes the club official in question is Tom Brady, seven-time Super Bowl winner and one of the most recognisable sports stars on the planet.

Click the link below to read the full piece.

Well, it turns out we already have an answer.

Nope, Tom Brady is not in attendance tonight. Boo.

Co-owner Tom Wagner is in the house, however. He's been pretty animated in the build-up to the game and has taken plenty of photos.

Blues spring a surprise straightaway. Everyone expected Jay Stansfield to be the only orthodox forward but Kyogo Furuhashi will make his full debut instead.

The Japan star tore it up for Celtic but struggled at Rennes and for about £40,000 per week, Birmingham need the Celtic version.

No sign of Omari Hutchinson in the Ipswich squad but Nathan Broadhead, the subject of a £7.5m bid from Wrexham, is on the bench.

Midfielder Azor Matusiswa has been given his debut from the off while the evergreen Ashley Young, 40, is on the bench.

There is no sign of Omari Hutchinson - Kieran McKenna says he has an infection - but Nathan Broadhead is among the substitutes.

That's a very decent team.

Kyogo Furuhashi has been given his full debut after arriving from a pretty poor spell in France, and will link up with Jay Stansfield.

Blimey. Summer went by quickly, didn't it?

Football is well and truly BACK, folks. Are you excited?

We begin tonight with this clash of the Championship titans at St Andrew's, and kick off is at 8pm BST.

It's Tom Brady vs Ed Sheeran and there isn't long to wait.

Don't go anywhere.