Birmingham 'frustrated' by Cobblers' tactics and 'freakish goal' in dramatic St Andrews draw

The Blues totally dominated the ball, finishing with 78 per cent possession and completing 400 more passes, as Cobblers sat in and soaked up pressure, a tactics which bore fruit with the home side having to wait until the 58th minute to make the breakthrough.

"It is frustrating, I'm not going to lie, but teams are going to do that because of how we're playing,” said Laird. “We dominated the whole game and we had our chances.

"When teams set up like that, it's difficult but this is what teams are going to try and do and you have to find a way to get through and we did. The only thing we were missing was a second goal and a third goal.

"I'm not sure they really touched the ball and whenever they did they were booting it straight back to us. It was complete domination and there are just little things to look at.”

Jay Stansfield finally broke the deadlock just short of the hour-mark but Birmingham were stunned by Pinnock’s fine finish with virtually the last kick of the game as Birmingham failed to deal with a long ball.

"It's hard to analyse because it's almost a freakish thing to happen,” Laird added. “The ball's gone up, it's hit one of our players and then it ricochets, ricochets again and the next thing you know it's a goal.

"You don't really come up against that too much but we have to adapt and it's a lesson for us. It's an annoying one but we didn't lose the game and it's still a point on the board."

Asked about Town’s tactics, Blues boss Davies replied: “I anticipated that. I have no problem with the opposition sitting back, it's up to them what they do, and they will think they have done what they wanted to do but we should have finished them off.

"It wasn’t a case that they were super well organised or anything, we had lots of chances and moments that we could have scored and taken the game from them. We can expect more of that. It’s something we have to find the answer to.

"But we were by far the better team and it's a ridiculous goal to concede at the end. It's the last kick of the game and you don't get a more painful way to drop points. It feels like a loss."