Report | Swansea City 1 Birmingham City 1
Zan Vipotnik netted his 13th goal of the season but it wasn’t enough to give Swansea City a fifth home Championship win in a row as Birmingham City shared the spoils at the Swansea.com Stadium.
Vipotnik had finished with aplomb after superb work by Goncalo Franco to put the Swans ahead in the 20th minute.
The hosts went on to hit the woodwork three times through Franco, Ronald and substitute Liam Cullen, with skipper Ben Cabango and Jisung Eom also having chances.
And the visitors made the most of those let-offs to secure a point thanks to a Patrick Roberts effort with 18 minutes to go.
It was a disappointing outcome with Franco turning in an absolutely relentless performance in the middle of the park, as Vitor Matos’ side were left to rue those missed opportunities.
The Swans, seeking a fifth home league win in a row, made the brighter start, delivering into the Birmingham box and causing some anxious moments for the visitors.
Eom fired into the midriff of James Beadle after a turn and driving run from Melker Widell had taken the Swans upfield.
Birmingham seemed happy to sit off the hosts and look to try and counter when possible but it was actually a Swansea attack in transition that created the first big opening.
A terrific pass from Ronald put Eom one on one with Phil Neumann, and the winger turned infield before sending a low strike wide of the target with the aid of a small deflection.
At the other end, Jay Fulton made a terrific block to deny Marvin Ducksch from a Lewis Koumas pull-back and a few minutes later the Swans took the lead.
An attack looked to have broken down but when Cameron Burgess sent a hopeful prod out towards the right flank, Franco beat a defender to the loose ball and advanced to deliver a terrific cross that Vipotnik turned home despite keeper Beadle getting a touch.
They Franco nearly doubled their lead eight minutes later after a wonderful move ended with Ethan Galbraith picking out the Portuguese midfielder, who cut into the box before getting away a curling strike that looked destined for the top corner, only for Beadle to brilliantly tip the ball onto the crossbar.
Neumann then nervily cleared a volleyed cross from the same player over his own woodwork, while Cabango nodded a header into the ground and over the bar from the resulting corner.
Franco was absolutely everywhere, and he led the next Swansea charge as he beat three red shirts to a bouncing ball and set off towards goal.
He unselfishly played in Ronald when he could have taken on a shot himself, and the Brazilian fired wastefully over.
Swansea were nearly made to pay when Birmingham strung together a terrific attack that saw Koumas pick out Roberts, but the winger fired wildly over from just inside the box and the hosts retained their lead at the interval.
That let-off served as a reminder, not that any were needed, that the job was not yet done and the Swans’ aggression saw them looked to reassert the control they had enjoyed during much of the opening period.
Galbraith had an awkward bouncing free-kick saved, before more strong pressing work presented Franco with the ball in the Birmingham area, but a good block prevented his shot finding the target.
They went closer still in the 55th minute when Birmingham struggled to clear a corner and Ronald lashed a volley against the woodwork from the left side of the six-yard box.
Birmingham looked to make the most of the let-off, substitute Jay Stansfield slamming an effort into the side-netting from an acute angle.
The visitors began to have a better spell from the hour mark and Matos looked to freshen things up as Cullen and Malick Yalcouye were summoned from the bench in place of goalscorer Vipotnik and Widell.
Ronald put a cross too close to Beadle with Eom waiting at the far post after a lovely pass from Fulton had sent the Swede into space on the left.
The Scot then made a brave, brave block as he put his head in the way of a ferocious Roberts strike a few moments later.
But Roberts would not be denied and there was no keeping out his rising right-footed strike after a Kai Wagner cross had come through to him via a serious of ricochets.
Lawrence Vigouroux then made a remarkable save to somehow keep the ball out of the Swansea net when Fulton’s challenge on Stansfield had sent the ball rolling towards the bottom corner.
Cullen then planted a superb header against the bar from a deep delivery from Josh Tymon, before the Swans were somehow denied a penalty when Inoussa was clearly manhandled at a corner by a defender holding him while paying no attention to the flight of the ball.
It only added to home frustrations as two points were dropped.
Swansea City: Lawrence Vigouroux; Ethan Galbraith, Ben Cabango (captain), Cameron Burgess, Josh Tymon; Jay Fulton, Goncalo Franco (Joel Ward 83), Melker Widell (Malick Yalcouye 67); Ronald, Jisung Eom (Zeidane Inoussa 77), Zan Vipotnik (Liam Cullen 67).
Unused Substitutes: Andy Fisher, Josh Key, Marko Stamenic, Bobby Wales, Ollie Cooper.
Birmingham City: James Beadle, Christoph Klarer (captain), Phil Neumann, Tommy Doyle, Paik Seung-Ho, Kyogo Furuhashi (Jay Stansfield 56), Patrick Roberts, Tomoki Iwata, Lewis Koumas, Kai Wagner, Marvin Ducksch (Willum Willumson 85).
Unused Substitutes: Ryan Allsop, Scott Wright, Alfons Sampsted, Kanya Fujimoto, Menzi Mazwi, Dan Isichei, William Burrell.
Referee: Tom Nield
Attendance: 16,753