Birmingham boss Chris Davies said he had “mixed emotions” after the League One leaders battled out a 1-1 draw with fellow promotion hopefuls Wrexham at the Racecourse Ground.
The contest dubbed the ‘Hollywood Derby’ saw Ollie Rathbone’s fine ninth-minute strike for the hosts cancelled out nine minutes later when Lyndon Dykes’ header went in off Wrexham midfielder George Dobson.
Ryan Allsop kept out second-half headers from James McClean and substitute Steven Fletcher as Birmingham secured a point that takes them three clear of second-placed Wycombe, who have played a game more and host Northampton on Saturday, while Wrexham are two points further back in third, having played two more matches.
Giving his reflections in his post-match press conference, Davies said: “Mixed emotions overall.
“I thought first half they scored a goal but we were nice and calm, got back into the game and I liked us in the first half, I thought we were very good.
“Second half I’m not sure we started as sharp and assertive as we could have done, and couldn’t quite get the same level of fluency or the same threat in our game constantly. In the end the home crowd were up and we had to defend the box and dig in.
“At that point you say ‘OK, we’ll take the point’ – but mixed emotions I would say.”
Asked about a first-half penalty appeal from Birmingham for handball, Davies said: “If that’s VAR, you get a penalty, and it was a foul in the lead-up to their goal on Taylor (Gardner-Hickman).
“I’m biased on all these things, but again it’s another game where I think the lion’s share of decisions kind of went against us. But that’s football, you have to get on with that.”
While the ‘Hollywood’ billing came on account of the celebrities involved at each club, actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, Wrexham’s co-owners, and seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, Birmingham’s minority owner, were monitoring developments from afar rather than in attendance.
Regarding the attention on the clash, former Liverpool and Tottenham assistant boss coach Davies said: “The games against Wrexham have felt like Premier League games in some ways.
“The level of interest and the whole build-up and all the talk has just taken me back to my time in the Premier League at big clubs.
“That’s what it’s felt like, which is incredible, and a great job that this is possible in League One. I never thought it would be, but it is and it’s probably gone around the world. So that’s a great thing for the EFL and League One.”
Wrexham boss Phil Parkinson, whose side are going for a third successive promotion this season, said: “Pleased with the performance. Good start from us, great goal by Ollie, disappointed with the goal we conceded.
“But second half I thought we responded really well. In terms of working on the training pitch and implementing what we asked the lads to do, I thought they did it really well, and also learning from the first game (a 3-1 loss at Birmingham in September).
“I said to the lads before the game that two years ago we were playing Gateshead away in front of 1,000 people, now we’re entertaining Birmingham in front of a full house live on TV.
“We’ve earned the right to be here – now we’re here in these big games, we’ve got to show everybody what we’re all about, and I think we did that, all bar get the winning goal.”