Friday’s Championship curtain-raiser between Birmingham and Ipswich was marred by ugly scenes in the closing stages as a fan tried to fight opposition players.
After a tense opening 45 minutes at St Andrew’s, Jay Stansfield fired Birmingham into the lead before the hour mark.
Chris Davies’ side remained in control throughout much of the game and looked set to secure all three points before referee Andrew Kitchen pointed to the spot in injury time.
George Hirst stepped up to take the all-important spot-kick and coolly slotted his strike beyond Blues goalkeeper Ryan Allsop to secure a dramatic equaliser for the Tractor Boys.
Scotland international Hirst then wheeled away in celebration and gestured to the home supporters, enraging fans behind the goal.
Birmingham defender Christoph Klarer ran over to the celebrating group before becoming embroiled in a melee with Conor Chaplin as tensions began to boil over between the two sets of players.
Players from both teams subsequently rushed in to break the pair apart before a fan made his way towards the pitch from the stands.
The supporter could then be seen putting his hands on Ipswich’s Dara O’Shea before being tackled by a steward as a bottle was thrown onto the pitch.
Order was eventually restored as the final whistle blew with honours even between the two sides.
Speaking following the game Davies insisted he was proud of his team’s performance.
‘I was very very happy with that performance,’ The Birmingham boss told the club’s social media.
‘I thought we were the better team throughout the game. I thought we were good with the ball, patient but picked our moments to go forward.
‘[We] created some good moments around the goal. Defensively we were very strong and aggressive. We didn’t lose that press that we obviously had really well last season.
‘To be the better team, to dominate a match like that against that level of opposition is really encouraging for me and the players should take a lot of encouragement from it.
‘Every game is different but you can only play the game that’s in front of you and in that particular game we were the better team.’
