'Fire in the belly was there' - Garry Monk hoping Sheffield Wednesday's draw at Birmingham City can be a springboard to better run of form

Sheffield Wednesday manager Garry Monk after his side's 3-3 draw against old side Birmingham City. Pic Steve Ellis

It looked like the Owls’ wretched spell would be about to continue when after just six minutes Jacob Murphy sliced a corner into his own goal.

However, Wednesday were hauled back into the game on 20 minutes when Barry Bannan’s low drive evaded Lee Camp and found the bottom corner of the goal.

Parity lasted just 10 minutes as the Blues went in front again when Lukas Jutkiewicz took advantage of some weak defending to fire past Cameron Dawson.

Monk’s men were again level on 34 minutes when Kieran Lee was given a kick in the chest, inside the penalty area and after referee John Brooks pointed to the spot, Fernando Forestieri slotted home his 40th goal for the club.

After the break, a tactical switch saw Wednesday go from five at the back to a flat back four and they would ask more questions of the Birmingham defence.

Murphy made amends for his earlier mistake when he blasted past Camp superbly to incredibly put Wednesday in front on 65 minutes and there were a few more chances for the Owls to stretch their lead.

However, they couldn’t quite hold on and just as the board went up to signal four minutes of added time, Scott Hogan lashed in on the volley from eight yards to give the home side a point.

“The fire in the belly was there," said Monk afterwards. “The determination and the competing side, which you have to do in this league, that's what we have been doing before - that's why we were third on Christmas Day, because of that.

“Even in that period, we didn’t win every game but we made sure we were in a position to win games and we haven't done that lately.

“Today was more like what we have been but we need to take that into the rest of the week.”

Birmingham City: Camp, Colin, Roberts, Clarke-Salter (Dean, 77), Pederson, Bela (Montero, 82), Gardner, Sunjic (Crowley, 69), Bellingham, Hogan, Jutkiewicz. Subs: Harding, Kieftenbeld, Trueman, Boyd-Munce

Sheffield Wednesday: Dawson, Pelupessy (Wickham, 45), Iorfa (Fox, 45) Lees, Borner, Palmer, Murphy, Lee, Bannan, Harris, Forestieri (Fletcher, 72). Subs: Wildsmith, Da Cruz, Windass, Nuhiu.

Referee: John Brooks

Attendance: 22,120 (2614)