Scott Hogan’s last minute penalty gives the victory to the hosts

The match valid for game week 39 was played very badly by both teams. Birmingham City arrived at the game 21st in the standings, with desperate need to collect important points to avoid relegation.

Swansea City on the other hand 3rd in standings and, despite the two consecutive defeats before this match, was expected to win.

 

Swansea actually started reasonably brightly and crafted the first chance of the match as Connor Roberts curled a low free-kick into the Birmingham penalty area for Jamal Lowe, whose powerful shot was pushed over the bar by Etheridge.

But that was about as creative as the visitors got, struggling to get the ball into attacking positions against their rugged opponents.

Birmingham were direct, looking to pin Swansea back with long balls into their box and putting them under pressure from set-pieces.

 

The first half has been overall more blues side, with the most important chances created by a header of Jutkiewicz following a corner and a shot from outside the box by Halilovic, both of which narrowly missed the target.

 

The most dangerous actions of the game all came from Marc Roberts' long throw-ins. After two attempts to throw the ball into the area the third was the winning one. After the long throw-in by Marc Roberts the other Roberts of the game, Conor, commits a foul in an attempt to anticipate Birmingham striker Jonathan Leko. For the referee it is a penalty.

 

But Blues missed a first-half spot kick because Lukas Jutkiewicz blasted straight at Swansea goalkeeper Freddie Woodman, who was also injured by the impact with the violent shot.

 

It was a significant miss in the battle for Championship survival and, in terms of this encounter, it was the last shot on target until the final quarter of an hour.

 

The second half, in fact, has not been more entertaining than the first one, but Swansea has shown signs of recovery and played an overall decent second part of the game.

 

On 73 minutes finally another shot on target when Swansea substitute Yan Dhanda struck a free-kick fiercely from 25 yards but it was saved by Etheridge.

Dhanda's next involvement proved to be decisive - but at the other end.

On 90 minutes another long throw-in by Roberts and, after a bit of confusion in the area, the ball came to Sunjic that started running into the Swansea box, but Dhanda slipped and brought down the Birmingham midfielder. The referee Harrington had no doubts in awarding the second penalty of the game.

This time, with the game into added time and tension rising, Hogan took responsibility and fired an excellent penalty to Woodman's right.

That secured Birmingham's second win in three matches under new manager Lee Bowyer, a significant boost in their battle to avoid relegation.

And for Swansea, for whom a draw was no real use, a third successive defeat was another heavy blow to their fading hopes of automatic promotion.

 

Victory moves Birmingham up to 20th in the table, six points clear of the bottom three, albeit having played four games more than Rotherham United, the highest-placed of the teams in the relegation zone.

As for Swansea, a third successive defeat leaves them nine points adrift of second-placed Watford.

Even with a game in hand on the Hornets, the Swans are losing ground in the race for promotion and look increasingly like they will be in the play-offs for a second successive season.

It is now three matches without a goal for the Welsh club and they rarely looked like ending that rut at St Andrew's.