Coventry hold out against Championship landlords Birmingham to secure replay at St Andrews

There is usually nothing like a visit from the landlord to strike fear into their tenants’ hearts. Not this one. On Saturday, the Championship's Birmingham City’s visit to their League One renters Coventry City passed off almost without incident, although had Coventry’s Aston Villa loanee Callum O’Hare not missed his kick in added time when unmarked in the six yards box, the League One upstarts would have had a famous victory.

Until this tie, Coventry’s unhappy sojourn in the second city attracted no more than the 8,085 – including over 2,000 from Suffolk – who attended the draw with Ipswich. Sensible ticketing arrangements which gave each club half the stadium and allowed 9,500 Birmingham fans to attend; the novelty of the occasion and the proximity of teams who hadn’t met since 2012 combined to sell-out St Andrew’s, a rarity even when Birmingham are the home team. For all the paucity of craft on display, the atmosphere sizzled.

With his team in little danger of changing status, Birmingham head coach Pep Clotet took the cup seriously enough and the five who were defenestrated after Tuesday’s draw at Middlesbrough were all on the bench.

Short of money, players and options, homeless Coventry simply fielded their best-available team. Naturally, their best players gave it their best shot. They soon established territorial hegemony and before half an hour had passed, Lee Camp had saved smartly from Jordan Shipley, after sterling work by Zain Westbrooke, an unpredictable wave on an often predictable sea.

Birmingham gave every impression of biding their time until the Coventry storm exhausted itself on the rocks of Harlee Dean and Jake Clarke-Salter. They failed to call Marko Marosi into meaningful action until the first moments of the second half when he tipped over Jefferson Montero’s drive.

Jeremie Bela added desperately needed zip to Birmingham; Max Biamou gave Coventry additional attacking muscle and, as an unwanted replay at the same ground beckoned, the tie became more open.

Biamou brought another excellent save from Camp after he’d linked with another substitute, O’Hare and in the exhilarating final 10 minutes a contest which had been nobody’s became anybody’s. And had O’Hare not fluffed his lines when Amadou Bakayoko’s lay-off found him, it would have been Coventry’s.

Coventry City (3-5-2): Marosi; 6 McCallum 6 Rose 6  McFadzean 7; Kelly 7 Hyam 6 Walsh 6 Dabo 7 Shipley 6 (O’Hare 68); Westbrooke 7 (Biamou 68) Godden 6 (Bakayoko 81)

Subs not used: Wilson (gk) Mason Allen Pask

Birmingham City (4-1-4-1): Camp 6; Pedersen 6 Colin 6 Clarke-Salter 7 Dean 7; Sunjic 7; Montero 6 (Maghoma 85) McEachran 6 Mrabti 6 (Bela, 56) Bellingham 6 (Gardner 85 ); Jutkiewicz 5

Subs not used: Ramos (gk) Roberts Gimenez Davis

Booked: Pedersen Clarke-Salter Jutkiewicz

Referee: Tim Robinson (West Sussex)