Birmingham City player ratings vs Sheffield United: Taylor leads from the front but Blades too strong

Two goals in ten second half minutes stopped Birmingham City's day of protest turning into one of celebration at St Andrew's.

Blues fans sported whistles and face masks in protest at their absentee owners and made their point eloquently - only to be denied a victory to go with it.

Lyle Taylor's second in two games since his move from Nottingham Forest gave them hope but Billy Sharp equalised a day shy of his 36th birthday.

And then Jayden Bogle scored a disputed winner with a quarter of an hour to go with Lee Bowyer howling for an offside flag.

The head coach kept faith with the side which started the 2-2 draw with Derby - with Taylor partnering Scott Hogan up front.

What followed was a featureless first half - discounting the whistles from the stand, in which neither side had much sight of goal.

Blues perhaps got away with a penalty shout on the quarter hour when Teden Mengi allowed Iliman Ndiaye to wriggle into the area where his heels looked to be clipped.

Not according to referee Keith Stroud - while Mengi did better on the half hour when Sharp headed a deep cross back to Ndiaye but the Manchester United loanee did well to stop the Frenchman releasing a shot.

Blues had a couple of openings themselves - when Onel Hernandez left Chris Basham in his wake but couldn’t find Juninho Bacuna 14 yards out.

Just before half time Wes Foderingham spilled Ryan Woods’ centre but Taylor’s lay back to Pedersen didn’t give the Dane time to do anything other than hack over.

Blues were cut open early in the second half though as Sharp squared for John Fleck just to the left of goal. He took time to pick his spot which allowed Kristian Pedersen to race across and block superbly.

Seconds later Ndiaye found space in the area and his