Tomoki Iwata ensured Hull City's Championship play-off push continued to stutter with a brilliant late equaliser for Birmingham City, the visitors fighting back to earn a 1-1 draw at the MKM Stadium. The Tigers had looked on course for a valuable three points to cement their grip on sixth place thanks to Joe Gelhardt's first-half strike, only for the Japan international to level 13 minutes from time.
It was an entertaining game that could have gone either way, with chances at both ends, but it was Hull who charged in the closing stages and still could not find a winner. The result left nerves jangling in East Yorkshire, with seventh-placed Wrexham, who beat Stoke City, closing the gap on Hull in the final play-off spot to just two points with three games to go.
Gelhardt Gives the Tigers the Lead
Hull broke the deadlock on 24 minutes through Joe Gelhardt, the on-loan Leeds forward who has found his shooting boots this season. Liam Millar launched the move down the Tigers' left and, when the Canadian winger was dispossessed by Carlos Vicente as he surged into the Birmingham penalty area, the ball fell kindly for Gelhardt to turn and fire low into the bottom corner with a crisp left-footed angled drive from 15 yards, the effort finding the net with the help of a significant deflection off defender Phil Neumann.