Birmingham 1 Huddersfield Town 1: Villains fan Lolley is the hero for Powell

Lolley, a product of Birmingham’s academy but an Aston Villa fan, derived a great deal of pleasure scoring a vital goal against his old club on only his third start, which cancelled out David Cotterill’s early opener.

Powell said: “Joe is a real natural talent but I would like to see the day he can last 90 minutes. His rise to a Championship footballer is quite amazing.

“He is an ex-university boy who was playing for Kidderminster. After 16 games he gets a big move to a Championship side.

“We are just trying to cajole him. We are trying to get that talent shown regularly on the pitch. Perhaps his nervous energy hinders his progress.

“But he took his goal well and, hopefully, we have a real talent as there is certainly something there in his play.”

After three successive defeats during which time they conceded nine goals, Huddersfield produced a much better performance after going a goal down to Cotterill’s close-range strike after 10 minutes.

Lolley, a major threat in the first half, deservedly equalised and the result left Powell a relatively happy manager.

Powell admitted: “I haven’t smiled for a while but this was a very good response from my players. We have had a horrendous week after three defeats but we set the tone from the first minute. The point was important to us.”

Birmingham City: Randolph, Caddis, Spector, Kiernan, Grounds, Tesche, Davis, Cotterill, Shinnie (Thomas 68), Gray (Dyer 83), Donaldson (Zigic 76). Unused substitutes: Robinson, Novak, Hancox, Doyle.

Huddersfield Town: Smithies, Smith, Hudson, Lynch, Robinson (Wallace 90), Hogg, Coady, Butterfield, Lolley (Gobern 77), Vaughan, Bunn (Scannell 21). Unused substitutes: Miller, Murphy, Carroll, Majewski.

Referee: P Tierney (Lancashire).

Man of the match: Paul Caddis.