English FA Premiership/Birmingham - 2 Newcastle - 2: At the end of a week that has brought attendance figures showing the first minor downturn in the Premiership boom-time, Birmingham City and Newcastle United offered a reminder yesterday of why 30,000 people pay to stand in the rain for 90 minutes.
The term end to end has been devalued by repetition but these two gave it a makeover: bold in the cold it would be called. After a first half of sustained attacking from both sides, the second was relentless.
Two goals were scored in the final 45 minutes but there could have been at least two more each as all pretension at competent defending was discarded.
Birmingham's Steve Bruce probably needed the point more as Manchester United are the next visitors to St Andrews. Birmingham have won only once this season, but David Dunn returned from a long-term injury to stimulate his colleagues with one of those flicks-and-feints performances that was effective as well as entertaining.
Dunn produced the incisive pass to Dwight Yorke for Birmingham to equalise Jermaine Jenas's third-minute opener and it required a fine Shay Given save 10 minutes from time to deny Dunn a winner.
Birmingham's one-time record purchase at £5.5 million from Blackburn Rovers was up against his old manager Graeme Souness and Dunn even provided a touch of spite by ignoring Souness's handshake on being substituted with seven minutes left.
It had been a "meaty" game according to Souness but it threatened to go to the next level only occasionally. Robbie Savage was usually around when that happened, but the Wales midfielder played well and clipped the outside of Given's right-hand upright with a clean 70th minute volley.
Almost immediately Craig Bellamy prompted a goal-line scramble in the Birmingham area that was finally cleared by Kenny Cunningham and, with two minutes to go, Laurent Robert struck an audacious 35-yard free-kick that rattled back off Maik Taylor's woodwork.
Asked his reaction as he saw the ball rebounding off the post, Bruce replied: "I shit myself. I thought it was whistling past the post. But maybe that's a turning point, that bit of luck we need."
Birmingham had endured some of the opposite. After Jenas had profited from a ricochet off Cunningham to slide in the first goal, Emile Heskey fell and twisted an ankle. "Badly," said Bruce.
On came Yorke but then Muzzy Izzet tweaked a knee and had to join Heskey prematurely in the dressing-room. So Birmingham had to adapt and Dunn began to roam. A 23rd-minute turn in the centre circle was followed by a cutting pass that sent Yorke free to beat Given via a deflection off Andy O'Brien.
Yorke was then the victim of a push by Stephen Carr in the Newcastle box, the first of three such unpunished interventions.
Matthew Upson received one from James Milner, which led to Nicky Butt scoring with an acrobatic volley - Butt's first for Newcastle.
That made it 2-2 and cancelled Upson's header nine minutes earlier. Savage's inswinging free-kick once again exposed Newcastle's aerial defensive frailty and Given was helpless as Upson nodded the ball in at pace.
There were still thrills, spills and a bellyache from Souness to come over Cunningham's 76th-minute push on Bellamy that the manager felt was an obvious penalty. Souness confronted referee Howard Webb at the end and received the response: "I was 70 yards away."
The new Newcastle manager did not appear overly pleased with that but his ire had subsided a little soon after. His team remain unbeaten in his six matches in charge.
"We have to be happy with a point," he said. "We've had a difficult week - a five-and-a-half-hour flight on Friday, a physical match the night before. We were never going to be at our best.
