Report | Birmingham City 1 Swansea City 0

Swansea City cruelly saw their unbeaten run ended as Lyndon Dykes' stoppage-time header denied them a deserved point on the road against Birmingham City at St Andrew's.

The Swans looked set to make it eight games without defeat until the Scotland international glanced home in the third minute of nine added on at the end of a full-blooded affair in the west Midlands.

Alan Sheehan’s side had given as good as they got against a Blues team unbeaten at home in the league since April 2024, and they had Zan Vipotnik’s first-half strike ruled out by what looked to be an incorrectly-raised offside flag.

The Slovenian also sent another opportunity over the bar, while Zeidane Inoussa was denied by Ryan Allsop.

At the other end, Lawrence Vigouroux made key saves to keep out Marvin Ducksch and Kyogo Furuhashi, with Ben Cabango also making an incredible stoppage-time block from Furuhashi with the Swansea keeper down injured.

But the visitors were denied a share of the spoils at the death.

Birmingham are now unbeaten in 28 league games in their own back yard, but they faced visitors who accepted the challenge of going toe to toe with them in a hostile atmosphere, and it made for an engrossing contest in front of a sell-out crowd.

The Swans had shown seven changes from the midweek Carabao Cup victory over Nottingham Forest.

Marko Stamenic returned from injury, with Vigouroux, captain Cabango, Josh Tymon, Ronald, Inoussa and Vipotnik also coming back into the team.

With home and away ends sold out there was a fantastic atmosphere inside the ground and there was no surprise that the start was frenetic and full of energy.

It made for a slightly scrappy start, but once the game started to settle Swansea looked increasingly assured.

Vipotnik should have scored for the sixth game in a row when a lovely flowing move saw Ronald fizz in a lovely cross that the Slovenian could only steer over the bar.

At the other end, Vigouroux got down to a tame shot from Jay Stansfield before Swansea cut the Blues wide open in transition.

Galbraith’s pass sent Inoussa racing away into the area where he beat the final covering defender, but his final shot was straight at keeper Allsop.

The ball was cleared as far as Josh Tymon, whose cross was turned in by Vipotnik. The offside flag was raised, but replays suggested a blue shirt had in fact been playing Swansea’s number nine onside.

The capacity crowd were getting their money’s worth, and play swept up the other end where Vigouroux did superbly to deny Ducksch, after the striker had rolled Cabango when meeting a low cross to give himself a clear sight of goal.

It continued to be a full-blooded affair and it took a wonderfully-timed challenge from Josh Key to prevent Lewis Koumas getting a strike away after Stansfield had found the winger’s run into the middle.

It remained goalless at the break, but Birmingham wasted a big chance to open the scoring seconds after the restart as Stansfield stood up a cross to the back post, where an unmarked Koumas elected to head back across goal and saw his effort drift wide.

That sparked a period of Birmingham pressure where they were able to deliver long throws and set-pieces into the Swansea box.

The visitors came through that and Inoussa burned Christoph Klarer for pace to find Vipotnik, whose attempted backheel was blocked out for a corner.

Vigouroux saved from Ducksch at the near post on the hour and then denied Furuhashi when the substitute was played through on goal seconds after coming on.

Moments later Sheehan turned to his bench as Adam Idah and Jisung Eom came on for Vipotnik and Inoussa.

Vigouroux stood tall to save with his feet after Gray had tricked his way between two defenders to go through on goal inside the final 10 minutes, before Tommy Doyle curled an effort just wide.

Nine minutes were added on and Cabango made a brilliant block as Furuhashi threatened to find the net with Vigouroux down after challenging for the ball in the air at the far post.

But Dykes would have the final word.

Swansea City: Lawrence Vigouroux: Josh Key, Ben Cabango (captain), Cameron Burgess, Josh Tymon; Marko Stamenic, Goncalo Franco (Melker Widell 94), Ethan Galbraith (Malick Yalcouye 89); Ronald (Liam Cullen 94), Zeidane Inoussa (Jisung Eom 74); Žan Vipotnik (Adam Idah 74).

Unused Substitutes: Andy Fisher, Ishe Samuels-Smith, Manuel Benson, Kaelan Casey.

Birmingham City: Ryan Allsop, Christoph Klarer (captain), Jack Robinson, Paik Seung-ho (Tommy Doyle 87), Demarai Gray, Alex Cochrane (Eiran Cashin 80), Tomoki Iwata, Bright Osayi-Samuel (Ethan Laird 66), Jay Stansfield (Lyndon Dykes 87), Lewis Koumas (Patrick Roberts 66), Marvin Ducksch (Kyogo Furuhashi 66).

Unused Substitutes: James Beadle, Phil Neumann, Marc Leonard.

Referee: John Busby