Middlesbrough 1-1 Birmingham City: Ashley Fletcher cancels out Lukas Jutkiewicz header

Middlesbrough and Birmingham City's draw in the Championship ended in frenetic fashion as the Blues felt they were controversially denied a late winning goal.

Lukas Jutkiewicz poked in from close range with three minutes to go but referee Andy Woolmer had already stopped play seconds earlier after Jude Bellingham accidentally collided with Marcus Tavernier, leaving Tavernier down on the ground.

That came shortly after Ashley Fletcher had flicked home Marvin Johnson's cross to draw Boro level and cancel out Jutkiewicz's first-half header for the visitors.

Birmingham keeper Lee Camp had also saved Paddy McNair's first-half penalty shortly before the Blues took the lead at the other end.

There were angry scenes on the touchline after Birmingham's disallowed goal and, after a fracas between players and coaches from both clubs, one member of each team's backroom staff was sent to the stands, with Boro's Leo Percovich and Blues' Sean Rush seeing red.

After Tavernier went down following his collision with Bellingham, referee Woolmer initially allowed play to continue from one end of the pitch to the other, before he then blew his whistle just before Jutkiewicz found the net and peeled away in celebration.

Ultimately, Fletcher's seventh goal in 15 appearances earned Boro a valuable point, when they had looked set to be frustrated for long periods of the night.

Birmingham took the lead through Jutkiewicz's textbook header from Jeremie Bela's perfectly-weighted right-wing cross, and Kerim Mrabti almost made it 2-0 but struck the post soon afterwards.

That came after Camp had denied McNair from the penalty spot following Gary Gardner's foul on Patrick Roberts in the area on 22 minutes.

The result extended the visitors' unbeaten run to four games in all competitions but they missed the chance to claim back-to-back away wins for a first time this season.

Boro's equaliser eight minutes from time kept them above the 18th-placed Blues in the table, as both teams edged a further point away from the relegation zone.

Middlesbrough manager Jonathan Woodgate told BBC Tees:

"If Patrick Roberts stays on the pitch we win the game because he's going to be a great player for us.

"But I've got no complaints for Paddy McNair, he struck his penalty well and the keeper made a great save.

"At the end, the rules are if someone has got a head injury you have to stop play - so I'm running at the linesman saying 'you've got to stop play'.

"The referee blew and it's just unlucky - the goal was offside anyway and what happened after that was just handbags."

Birmingham City head coach Pep Clotet told BBC WM 95.6:

"I understand the referee can stop the game at any time but we kept playing, they kept playing and the Middlesbrough bench stormed the pitch to try and stop the game.

"We all need to love the game a little more and make sure we represent the best values of the game.

"The reality is we were on top of everything and had total control of the game.

"You can say we should have scored on the numerous breaks we had but we did score the second goal."