Birmingham toil to victory in Hong Kong

Birmingham City endured an awkward afternoon in a hot and sticky Hong Kong on Sunday, labouring to a 3-2 win in the opening game of their Far East tour.

In an uneventful first quarter of what was a typically disjointed pre-season friendly, the Hong Kong League XI should have taken a shock lead in the stifling humidity but Christian Annan fired over when through on goal.

Birmingham continued to toil as temperatures at Hong Kong Stadium nudged above 30 degrees centigrade (86 Fahrenheit), but they took an undeserved lead on 21 minutes when Scott Dann headed home unchallenged from a corner.

But four minutes later the makeshift Hong Kong side were level in a first-half that they shaded in terms of possession and chances in front of a watching Carson Yeung, City’s owner and a Hong Kong businessman.

Sebastian Larsson made a mess of his clearance and Sandro Leonardo fired home from close range, giving Ben Foster — making his Birmingham debut — no chance, though the England international did well to get a glove to it.

If that was bad for the English Premier League side, things got worse as they went behind in injury time at the end of the first 45 minutes.

The visitors’ defence stood off Annan, allowing him time and space to curl the ball past Foster from just outside the box, the former Manchester United keeper rooted to the spot.

With the Blues making six changes at half-time, Foster’s final act of the afternoon was to pick the ball out of his net.

New signing Nikola Zigic came on midway through the second-half for Birmingham and he played a pivotal role in the face of some increasingly desperate and dogged home defending.

Craig Gardner finally made the pressure tell for Birmingham in the 74th minute, heading home unchallenged to pull Birmingham level.

Then towering Serb Zigic knocked the ball down with his head for Garry O’Connor to slot the ball home from close range and save Birmingham’s blushes.