Birmingham vs Ipswich: Live score and updates as Kyogo Furuhashi denied incredible goal after controversial decision as Tom Brady's Blues make Championship return against Tractor Boys

Half an hour into the season and we've had our first foul throw.

Johnson was the culprit as he looked to toss one in.

Kyogo is looking very sharp out there. The ball was dropped onto his toes on the edge of the box, but O'Shea was there to mop up.

I have to agree with Tom, who is spot on with his assessment.

Ipswich are indeed growing into this game.

Wow. Allsop is one lucky man. Ipswich hassled and harried their opponents as they looked to play out and forced a mistake.

It was a poor pass out from the goalkeeper and Szmodics sensed the danger, pouncing on the ball before crashing one wide.

There was plenty of power behind that, but he had to hit the target.

Stansfield did well to find Kyogo down the inside-left channel, and the new man turned sharply before firing into the side netting.

Ipswich then took an age over the restart. The anger is rising.

A sloppy mix-up at the back for Birmingham sparked panic, but Neumann did superbly to get across and clatter the ball away.

O'Shea went long right down the middle and poor communication allowed Szmodics to wriggle through, into the box.

He was about to shoot when Neumann appeared out of nowhere.

Oooooo. There's our first flashpoint.

It was all a bit scrappy when Taylor and Osayi-Samuel bundled into each other, sending them tumbling onto the advertising hoarding.

They squared up and had to be separated. Both were booked.

The referee this evening is named Andrew Kitchen. I was going to make a 'hotting up' joke, but Sky Sports already got there first.

Either way, he's been whistle happy in these opening 15 minutes or so, and that hasn't suited either side, really.

It's the opening game of the season and we've already got pundits complaining that football has gone soft. I love it.

To be fair, a few Ipswich players have gone down a little easily, much to the disapproval of Chris Davies on the touchline.

Ipswich have started so sluggishly. Johnson crashing an attempted switch out of play neatly summed up how poor they've been.

The hosts have enjoyed a whopping 84 per cent of the ball.

That definitely wasn't a foul for me. The home crowd are raging, and you can understand why. Greaves hit the deck far too easily.

Undeterred, Birmingham came forward through Cochrane, but his devilish cross from the left didn't find a team-mate.

This is very harsh. Birmingham had the ball in the net but it won't count after the referee blew his whistle. I'm not sure there was enough in it...

Greaves allowed the ball to bounce outside of the box and Kyogo went up with him before making slight contact with his opponent.

Kyogo then found himself through and looped an inch-perfect lofted finish over the head of the onrushing Palmer.

On Sky Sports, Don Goodman said it was a 'really poor decision'.

Ipswich finally slung the ball into the box from halfway and Greaves won the first touch, before Clarke was penalised for a foul.

Looked soft to me, that.

Chris Davies went absolutely ballistic after Johnson took an age over a throw-in right in front of the dugouts.

Ipswich are hoping to take the sting out of the occasion.

No messing around from the hosts, who have picked up exactly where they left off when they cruised to the League One title last season.

For Ipswich, it's about steadying the ship and finding a foothold. They're looking to get their foot on the ball and slow the pace down.

It's been a confident start from Birmingham.

They moved the ball very well from side to side before Anderson's searching cross from the right drifted straight out of play.

PEEEEP! We're off and running, and so is the Championship.

It's a gorgeous, sunny evening at this historic ground.

Here come the players! We've got fireworks and pyro, the works.

Right, let's get some score predictions. Drop them in the comments.

Wow. St Andrew's is absolutely rocking.

It's so good to have football back.

This is your ten-minute warning, folks. Strap yourselves in.

Birmingham boss Chris Davies believes Ipswich are one of the hot favourites to be promoted back to the Premier League.

Well, according to Opta, he's bang on the money.

Their predicted table for the end of the season has Ipswich in second place, beaten to the top by Sheffield United.

The Blues, meanwhile, have been tipped to finish 12th.

Daily Mail Sport was granted unprecedented access to the Blues' pre-season training camp to find out exactly why their ambitious US owners believe the Premier League is only a year away.

Tom Collomosse explored how they have beaten top-flight clubs to new signings, their tech gurus from Facebook and Microsoft, and a £2billion megaproject designed to blow their rivals away.

Trust me, this is worth the read.

Just click the link below to take a look via Mail+.

Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna, speaking to Sky Sports:

Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna, speaking to Sky Sports:

Hutchinson has, of course, attracted Premier League attention.

TOM COLLOMOSSE: The ping of a smartphone is perhaps the most familiar sound in the life of today's footballer.

Whether from friends, family, team-mates, coaches, club officials or agents, there is virtually constant demand for their attention.

For Birmingham City players, however, sometimes the club official in question is Tom Brady, seven-time Super Bowl winner and one of the most recognisable sports stars on the planet.

Click the link below to read the full piece.

Well, it turns out we already have an answer.

Nope, Tom Brady is not in attendance tonight. Boo.

Co-owner Tom Wagner is in the house, however. He's been pretty animated in the build-up to the game and has taken plenty of photos.

Midfielder Azor Matusiswa has been given his debut from the off while the evergreen Ashley Young, 40, is on the bench.

There is no sign of Omari Hutchinson - Kieran McKenna says he has an infection - but Nathan Broadhead is among the substitutes.

That's a very decent team.

Kyogo Furuhashi has been given his full debut after arriving from a pretty poor spell in France, and will link up with Jay Stansfield.

Blimey. Summer went by quickly, didn't it?

Football is well and truly BACK, folks. Are you excited?

We begin tonight with this clash of the Championship titans at St Andrew's, and kick off is at 8pm BST.

It's Tom Brady vs Ed Sheeran and there isn't long to wait.

Don't go anywhere.