Two goals in the closing minutes denied Wednesday a draw in a battling performance against Birmingham at Hillsborough this evening.

While the visitors created far more chances, we kept them at bay – partly due to some fine stops from keeper Murphy Cooper – but Birmingham’s late pressure finally paid off with that double strike which was tough to take given our overall display.

Cooper produced an excellent early save to deny Jay Stansfield but Barry Bannan was close to putting us ahead soon after the half-hour mark with a 20-yarder just over ex-Owl James Beadle’s goal.

At the other end, Yan Valery came to the rescue with a last-ditch tackle to block Lewis Koumas’ shot for a corner.

However, we were within inches of taking the lead three minutes after the break, Svante Ingelsson feeding Bailey Cadamarteri but the striker’s angled shot from inside the box came back off the far post.

At the other end, Cooper kept out an effort from Tomoki Iwata and he then made a double save to foil Iwata again and Marvin Ducksch.

Then, seven minutes from time, Birmingham’s growing pressure was rewarded when we failed to clear an attack convincingly, the ball was played back into the box and Ducksch beat the offside trap to stab home from close in.

And they made it 2-0 in added time when Cole McGhee’s back pass went straight to Kyogo Furuhashi and he turned the ball home from a tight angle to secure the points.

M Cooper, Valery, Palmer, Otegbayo, McGhee, Johnson, Ingelsson (McNeill 70), Bannan (Thornton 88), Heskey, J Lowe (Redmond 88), Cadamarteri. Unused subs: Stretch, Shipston, Emery, Moses, Onukwuli. Attendance: 22,396.