All square at St Andrews

Birmingham 1 Reading 1

Stephen Hunt’s second-half penalty ruined Alex McLeish’s first home match as Birmingham manager and halted a run of six successive away defeats for Reading.

Hunt scored from the spot after he had been brought down by Blues goalkeeper Maik Taylor following a weak back-pass from defender Mat Sadler.

That cancelled out Mikael Forssell’s first-half strike but City had enough chances to have collected points with Royals goalkeeper Marcus Hahnemann producing some crucial saves and Ibrahima Sonko making a spectacular clearance off the goal-line with the help of the underside of the crossbar.

It was Reading’s first away point in four months since they drew with Manchester United at Old Trafford on the opening day of the campaign.

They enjoyed plenty of possession in the opening 45 minutes and looked full of confidence after their 3-1 home success over Liverpool last weekend.

But Hahnemann was the busier of the two goalkeepers with Forssell looking sharp in his first start under McLeish and Damien Johnson adding some steel in the centre of the park.

Reading made a positive start but after four minutes Blues went ahead through Forssell in their first meaningful attack.

Gary McSheffrey’s corner was flicked across the face of goal by Fabrice Muamba and, although Nicky Shorey blocked the recalled Forssell’s initial header, the Finn bundled the rebound over the line for his third goal of the campaign.

The goal seemed to lift the home side and the confident Forssell twisted and turned to create an opening before having his eventual shot blocked.

Reading were forced to make a change after 27 minutes when midfielder Brynjar Gunnarsson suffered a knee injury and was replaced by Kalifa Cisse.

Royals skipper Graeme Murty became the first player to be yellow-carded after 38 minutes for bringing down Muamba in full flight just outside the centre circle.

Blues midfielder Johnson, making his first league start of the campaign in place of the suspended Mehdi Nafti, quickly followed him into referee Lee Probert’s notebook after blocking the run of Hunt down the right flank.

Muamba made some good breaks forward and McSheffrey should have done better when he was found in space just inside the box as he sliced his shot across the face of goal.

Hahnemann came to Reading’s rescue after 40 minutes when he blocked a low close-range effort from Forssell with his feet.

But it needed Taylor to ensure Blues maintained their advantage at the interval when saving in similar fashion from James Harper.

After 50 minutes Hunt put the Royals level from the penalty spot after a blunder by City defender Sadler.

The left-back did not put enough power into his attempted back-pass towards Taylor, who brought down Hunt after he had seized on to the loose ball.

Up stepped Hunt to send the Northern Ireland number one the wrong way from the spot.

Birmingham tried to retaliate and a deep cross from Sebastian Larsson was met by Jerome but he sent his header over the crossbar.

Hahnemann produced a reflex save to keep out Jerome’s close-range header from a McSheffrey centre and fisted away a curling Larsson free-kick.

Blues skipper Liam Ridgewell was yellow-carded for bringing down Bobby Convey and his fifth booking of the campaign will rule him out of next weekend’s game at Bolton through suspension.

McSheffrey was unfortunate when a 30-yard free-kick rattled against the Reading crossbar. The rebound fell to Larsson whose header was cleared off the line by Sonko, who directed the ball up on to the underside of the crossbar and out.

Reading substitute Shane Long could have snatched victory in the closing stages but he mis-hit his volley when completely unmarked as Steve Coppell’s side finished in the ascendancy, with Hunt side-footing a late chance for a second goal wide.