A first-half strike from Ricardo Fuller cancelled out Jesse Lingard's early opener in a closely matched game at St Andrews. Both teams felt they could have won the game, with both teams having shots cleared off the line with both sides having gilt-edged chances to win the game.
Blues started brightly, putting Blackpool under some severe pressure early on. Lingard nearly capitalised on a Gilks mistake as Zigic slid in, but saw his shot deflected just past the post. Blackpool couldn't hit their stride early on and Blues were the better team, so it was to no surprise that Blues took the lead. Some clever interplay between Burke, Caddis and Lingard down the right hand side led to a crossing opportunity, which the Blackpool defence struggled to deal with. England U-21 International Lingard popped up with just the keeper to beat, and he coolly side-footed the ball into the bottom left-hand corner.
Blues were on top - going forward they were finding space, defensively they were solid. Mitch Hancox was flying into tackles and racing forward. He showed surprising skill to evade a tackle down the left wing, but Zigic was unable to connect with the cross. He and Novak were combining well to keep the highly rated Tom Ince quiet, but it was not for long.
A simple ball down the Blues left found Ince, who had gotten away from Hancox for the first time in the game. With his first touch he pulled an enticing ball back to the waiting Ricardo Fuller, who calmly found the corner. It was a simple goal but showed the quality within the Blackpool side. Suddenly they were on top and Ince was the catalyst. A fast counter-attack from a corner ended with Ince hooking a perfect pass into the path of Fuller, who looked destined to double his tally for the game, but his placed shot was turned behind by Irish 'keeper Darren Randolph. Tom Ince again got involved with a Blackpool attack; Hancox was caught up the pitch as Ince cut inside, before playing a reverse slide-rule pass into the path of Stephen Dobbie, who dragged his effort past the far post with only Randolph to beat.
After the break, Blues got back into the game. Poland International Dariusz Dudka came on early in the second half for Callum Reilly and immediately fired a fizzing half-volley at goal from 25 yards but Gilks was there to stop it. The game seemed destined to fizzle out, with a scrappy 20 minutes, but there was still time for either team to win it. Tom Ince got a chance to win the game, but after rounding the keeper he saw his effort stopped on the line bravely by Dan Burn, in for the suspended Kyle Bartley.
Lee Clark called for two more subs, as Aaron McLean made his debut, replacing Nikola Zigic, and Demarai Gray replaced the relatively ineffective Burke. Then it was Blues' turn to try and win the game. Matt Gilks was nearly embarrassed as Lee Novak's header looped over him, agonisingly coming down onto the bar and just evading the expectant Blues players. McLean tried to force it in with an acrobatic finish, but just ended up giving away a free-kick. Novak again nearly forced in again, after a free-kick landed at his feet, but Tyler Blackett cleared off the line, before he then cleared away Novak's second effort.
Demarai Gray nearly won the game for Blues at the end, but he lacked composure as he latched on to Novak's clever flick-on. The game ended at 1-1, which on balance was probably fair. Neither side will be disappointed giving the way the game went and every point is important for Blues.
