54mins More cool finishing from Kieron Dyer when presented with a one on one chance, coolly slotting home what should have been the winner in front of the away end - having been presented with the opportunity when Upson failed to clear a forward pass from Martins. 2-1

86mins With United conceding territory in the midfield far too cheaply, Johnson was allowed to cross from the left, with substitute Danns getting a touch. The ball fell to on-loan Gunner Sebastian Larsson, who held off Edgar before swivelling and lashing the ball past Shay Given from 10 yards 2-2

Full time: Birmingham 2 Newcastle 2

Glenn Roeder commented:

"When you lead with five minutes to go against opponents who have 10 men, I would expect us to see out the game and win.

"Unfortunately, the equaliser showed the inexperience in the team, because we did not handle the cross that came into the box for the equaliser very well.

"Having said that, we should have been out of sight by then, and we showed more of a killer instinct at the other end of the pitch.

"I told the team this game would not be like the one with Manchester United, and Birmingham are doing exceptionally well in the Championship.

"It had the potential to be a difficult game, but we made it more difficult than it should have been.

"But we are pleased to be in the draw for the fourth round, and have now got to try and make sure we finish the job off in the replay."

It wasn't the cup draw most of us were looking for - away at the Championship leaders currently on course for a swift return to the Premiership.

Of course, it was us that put the final nail in their coffin back in April last year: our goalless draw here leaving them shell-shocked with the calamity of relegation when most had expected it to go to the last game of the season.

It's never much of a pleasure to visit this venue, so to be back so soon after what should have been at least a season's break wasn't really much of a treat. It's not a nice to place to come to.

Apart from a gloriously sunny pre-season friendly a decade ago, our visits seem always to take place under leaden skies adding to a miserable backdrop of canals, railway bridges, ring roads and boarded-up factories - the Second City regeneration clearly hasn't got this far out yet....

Pre-match rumours of teenager Kazenga LuaLua making our bench looked bang on when four young subs warmed up on the pitch, plus Pav. 

However, a good ten minutes after everyone else out strolled Luque to join in a keepy-uppy session - the Spaniard's lack of professionalism seems to know no bounds. His name was duly read out as a bench-warmer, with the untried Kris Gate the odd man out.

Pav and Shay's warm-up highlighted the awful state of the St.Andrew's playing surface, not helped by the pre-match rain but knacked well before that. 

What remained of the pitch was ripped up hours after this game, but only after claiming a victim in the shape of City man Bendtner - Bruce perhaps regretting his pre-match waffle about the pitch being a great leveller and their secret weapon to cut the Premiership side down to size.

Srnicek's preparations created something of a mudslide just behind the goal line, while Shay slipped and slid all over the goal area. And that wasn't the worst part - the tyre marks down one flank and ruts on the other a shocking sight on a league ground. 

Minutes before kick-off the ground was still half empty, except for the away sections, which had quickly sold out when tickets were made publicly available five days earlier. 

Unlike the late, late show at SJP though when thousands routinely appear in their seats seemingly just seconds before kickoff, there weren't many late arrivals and swathes of empty blue and white seats remained unoccupied - even in the usual slack-jaws enclosure to our right. 

Bruce's fanfare for the common man after the game was admirable but were the home supporters being asked to pay a fortune? We were charged half what we usually pay here, so £20 for an FA Cup game against attractive Premiership opposition is hardly extortionate - although a policy of lower prices and fuller grounds should always be pursued, if only to snare future generations.

And compared to being charged £16 in 1999 and £17 in 2000 for the League Cup ties here, the £20 rate was far less than expected - although clagging an extra £5 on for the same tickets when they went on public sale must surely be a breach of whatever meaningless voluntary pricing code covers this competition.  

Today's non-attendance is a symptom of an ailing game. Sky revenues may be reaching a new high but Old Trafford and Arsenal's new ground apart, takings from the turnstiles have peaked. 

But this game of ours was lobotomised years ago - all-seater grounds, season tickets, inconvenient kickoff changes and unrealistic prices made sure of that, as the Premiership circus got underway. And you don't have to be a brain surgeon to realise that lobotomies are irreversible....

However, the atmosphere in the away end for this one was tremendous. Continuous noise, vitriolic chants designed to wind-up the home fans and people simply intent on having a decent day out.

Just like the good old days then? Not quite. Bruce is half-right, in that large numbers of low-income fans have long since been disenfranchised. 

From our own observations though, many of those present today of a black and white orientation were infrequent away watchers, unwilling or unable to shell out a combined £110 minimum for our trips to Bolton, Everton and Spurs. The magic of the cup - and half-sensible prices - so where were the oh-so-loyal Brummies? 

As it turned out, LuaLua did make the bench, which caused a fair amount of finger-pointing and head-scratching amongst the away support. 

The nearest most fans had come to seeing the younger cousin of our old boy Lomana in action was the Youtube clip of his fine solo goal at Exeter in the Youth Cup. From our own experience, he's got undoubted potential but with one reserve start to his name, this was ludicrously early to be blooding him.    

At 16 years and 27 days, Kazenga would have been our youngest ever player by some distance had he ventured onto the pitch and had we taken our second half chances, he might just have got a minute or two.

By putting LuaLua on the bench though, was Roeder trying to raise the pressure on Shepherd & Co. by highlighting our present paucity of players? 

Maybe so, but attempting to play the sympathy card with the footbaling equivalent of a Band Aid please give generously-type video fails to tell the full story.

Roeder simply didn't have to put the 16-year old on the bench - there were various older but untried players who could have been picked (Shanks, Finnigan, Troisi, Gate to name four) or he could have done what Souness did when he managed us - and only name four subs. 

There were already plenty of youngsters in our starting line-up and while Huntington and Edgar have filled shirts well, a little bit of reality duly intervened for them here today, after the dreamland of the Man U game. 

It's easy to forget though that Taylor, Milner and Pattison are only a year or so older - born in 1986 rather than '87 and in the case of the first two now an integral part of our squad. 

Quite simply, senior players need to get fit quick or be pensioned off, buying or borrowing mediocre stop-gaps no more than a holding exercise to get us through to the next transfer window. That's unacceptable, corner shop thinking.  

Neither side started the game particularly strongly, chances being few and far between and it coming as a major shock when the home side took the lead. 

After that we looked in real trouble. Not because the home side were in control or playing well but we didn't look like creating any chances. Martins had a snapshot well saved but despite Dyer and Milner looking busy there wasn't much else happening. But like Birmingham we converted our first corner having just escaped at the other end.

Involved in both incidents was Steven Taylor who cleared off the line after Given had scrambled to save from close range. We've shown some resilience in recent weeks but to have gone two behind at that stage might have been curtains.

Within minutes Taylor turned in a near post corner - also our first of the game - and after a split second delay (converting a corner was certainly unexpected) the away end celebrated wildly.

The partying had barely subsided when Martins chased a long ball and managed to get ahead of Jaidi. The defender realised the danger and pulled down our man for what looked like a penalty and a sending off. 

Referee Dean was unsure if the foul was inside the box but his linesman signalled a free-kick, although there was no doubt about the colour of the card.

From the away end, it looked inside but credit to the linesman - the TV replays showed the tug on Martins was on the edge of the box. Butt was booked for pacing out ten yards and Milner almost made it a hat-trick of happiness but his strike was saved by Maik Taylor.

Birmingham were in disarray and a goal before the break would have settled the tie but going in level at the interval gave the home side the chance to regroup.

The half-time "entertainment" defied belief as a roofless wooden garden shed was brought out onto the pitch.

Rather than being full of tools though for groundstaff to effect running repairs - or plant their leeks - it was plonked in the centre circle and some locals were invited to come out and stand in front of it.

Thoughts that this was some sort of Trojan Horse escapade and hundreds of missing home fans would appear via a secret tunnel were dispelled though when it became clear that the ingenious plan was to get twits from the crowd to try and chip the ball into the shed. 

Needless to say they couldn't (wearing normal shoes and standing ankle-deep in clarts) -  the whole farce having a suitable ending when one bloke won by side-footing the ball against the side of the damn thing to collect enough points to be declared victor - and collect his £20 DIY voucher.

Simply incredible - the barn door analogy is of course far too obvious for us to mention....

On the evidence of the first half there was genuine concern that we might not create enough chances to break down the notoriously tough ten man defence (ancient football law XIV). 

However we made more of a fist of things, Milner having already hit the bar with an almost inch-perfect free-kick that somehow struck the 'keeper and stayed out, before Dyer gave us the lead in the 54th minute. Game over, you'd think. 

And for half an hour afterwards, our patched-up side had it easy with only the odd snapshot testing Given. Pattison had thankfully moved into the middle after having an awful first half down the left and with Alan O'Brien replacing the flu-bound Sibierski we had a natural left-winger - at least on paper. 

However, young Matty started to lose possession regularly once again, putting our inexperienced backline under pressure. 

Meanwhile O'Brien was doing what he does best - leaving full-backs in his wake before delivering the ball to the far corner flag. Regardless of his full Ireland call up last year it's thank you and goodnight to him now, without ever putting the ball in the mackems net.

But there were chances aplenty to kill the game and dithering from both Dyer and Martins in the area was to prove very costly as we failed to reach the comfort zone, yet played with a languidity that suggested we were out of sight. 

With the home stands now only about a third full, City levelled out of the blue - although we'd long since ceased to have any shape or cohesion in a increasingly disjointed finale that saw alarming gaps appearing at both ends as fatigue set in.

It almost got worse as the revitalised ten men had us chasing shadows for the last five minutes. A dubious challenge on Milner could have seen us awarded a penalty although his tumble was probably too dramatic for referee Dean. We'd have probably missed the spot-kick anyway....

In a season of injuries we seemed to emerge relatively unscathed from here, only having to use one of our subs - and that due to illness. 

However, adding another fixture to our schedule was as much of a blow to us as to the home side - although we do have the cushion of making a few quid from the replay tickets and some TV dosh to offset any embarrassment. 

Whether any cash will have been splashed at SJP before the replay remains to be seen, but it's difficult to imagine that we won't field a stronger side - or bench.

As for the Brummies, well according to Bruce they were back to their best before the red card and injuries. Wow. The man is obviously deranged and for all his Fog on the Tyne / Bus from Balmbra's Geordieisms should never be allowed to come within gurning distance of the Newcastle job.  

If City do manage to come back up at the first time of asking, then get money on them to promptly plummet once more. Without their loan players, they'll threaten the mackems' paltry Premiership points total.

What of the side eight places and one league above them though? To still be in the competition with a home replay to come and the prospect of another tie at SJP if we win the rematch isn't a bad return. 

And for us to have been provided with a timely reminder that Roeder's rookies are some way behind the Busby Babes while neither losing precious Premiership points or exiting from a cup competition is also a useful return.

Against that though is the disappointment of being unable to outwit a short-handed and truly mundane side who we'll be expected to take six points off next season if they come up.  

We remain worryingly vulnerable to crosses and set pieces - although at least the players making the ricks came far cheaper than the equally culpable Boumsong.... 

To saddle our defence with all of the blame is to hit soft targets while ignoring others deserving of a kick up the jacksie. That includes some of those absent today who should now be posted as missing, given the radio silence on them since they were allegedly close to a return - Carr, Duff and Babayaro to name three. 

The need for a recruiting drive remains - let's see whether Glenn gets the players he wants, or is saddled with someone else's "bright ideas".  

Niall MacKenzie

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