MILLWALL took a point away from St Andrew’s as they played out an entertaining draw with Birmingham City.
The Lions grabbed the lead early from a Kevin Nisbet free-kick before a Birmingham fight back saw Jay Stansfield equalise in the second half.
It was probably a fair result at the end of the game that ebbed and flowed and saw Matija Sarkic have to make a penalty save after he gave away a spot-kick.
Ryan Leonard was also denied a brilliant goal after his long-range strike was judged to be offside after hitting Jake Cooper.
The match is the final one before the first international break of the season and the Lions were looking for back-to-back wins after a hard-fought victory over Stoke.
Birmingham, meanwhile, were hoping to get to the break with their unbeaten record intact after a brilliant start to their campaign under John Eustace.
Nisbet lit the blue touch paper for a breathless first half as he stepped up to a free-kick on the edge of the D after Tom Bradshaw was fouled five minutes in.
The Scottish striker, fresh off his first goal for the club last week, whipped an effort over the wall that beat John Ruddy despite the keeper getting a hand to the shot.
Birmingham would not be discouraged by the early strike and had a series of chances over the following 20 minutes.
Juninho Bacuna was at the centre of the Blues’ efforts, firing two shots over the bar and hitting a timid, slow effort at goal that Sarkic could have stopped with his eyes closed.
Even with the home side’s chances, Millwall still had their tails up and offered goal threat of their own on the counter-attack.
Brooke Norton-Cuffy impressed, picking up unusual positions throughout the half, delivering consistently enticing crosses and showing a sharp change of direction while on the ball.
He was one of a number of players in the away orange strip who impressed so much in the opening 20 minutes that it triggered quick-witted cries of “Gary Rowett, your football’s alright!” from the away end.
For a few seconds those same fans were in dreamland after a George Saville corner eventually fell for Leonard after 20 minutes.
From about 25 yards out, the 31-year-old drove a ferocious goal-bound effort which took a deflection on its way in.
Celebrations had been going on for at least 30 seconds before those of a Millwall persuasion saw the raised flag of the assistant referee, who appeared to need a few seconds to make up his mind. He judged the shot deflected off Jake Cooper on its way in.
The game remained frantic with only a moment of calm coming after captain Shaun Hutchinson was forced off after half an hour with injury, replaced by Wes Harding.
And then came the drama at the end of the 45 as the ball broke for Keshi Anderson in the box after some slack Millwall defending.
Sarkic charged out to swipe the ball away but only caught the winger.
But the keeper would redeem himself with a fine penalty save from Scott Hogan after referee Josh Smith pointed to the spot.
Millwall joy would lost only seven minutes into the second-half as Birmingham finally took their chance.
Stansfield, who has been excellent since signing on loan from Fulham and was the home side’s star performer, found space in the box before driving a low effort past Sarkic.
From there Millwall found themselves having to survive against a Blues side who had the wind in their sails.
Birmingham’s best chance in this period came as Stansfield forced Sarkic to beat away his rising effort from inside the box after the hour mark.
But the visitors edged back into the game and by the 70th minute had turned to the long-throw as their primary attacking tactic with both Harding and Leonard having their turns at hurling the ball into the box from the touchline.
Both teams tired as the game increasingly threw up fewer chances, despite both managers making a number of substitutions.
For Millwall, this included handing debuts to their deadline day signings of Ryan Longman and Allan Campbell.
But nobody on the pitch could quite find the breakthrough and, all things considered, both teams would probably view this as a good point to take into the international break.
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Millwall: 3-4-1-2: Sarkic; Leonard, Cooper, Hutchinson (c) (Harding 32′); Norton-Cuffy (Campbell 76′), Mitchell, Saville (Esse 82′), Wallace (Longman 76′); Flemming; Bradshaw, Nisbet (McNamara 75′).
Birmingham City: 4-2-3-1: Ruddy; Drameh, Sanderson (c), Long, Buchanan; Bielik, Sunjic; Bacuna (James 82′), Stansfield (Miyoshi 72′), Anderson (Longelo 90′); Hogan
Referee: Josh Smith
Attendance: 18,710