Garry Monk has endured a tough summer with Birmingham City, unable to sign players due to a transfer embargo, he went into the opening fixture with virtually the same squad as last season.

Connal Trueman stepped up to the keeper's role, despite being only 22-years old, as Birmingham secured a 2-2 draw against Norwich City. He was one of a few younger faces peppered across the Birmingham squad.

Monk is still hopeful of adding to his squad, but he's stressed that any recruitment will still have to fit his structure and not just be new faces for the sake of it.

“I won’t just bring anyone in for the sake of having a body, they have to fit into this group of players and how we are going to try and play," he told Birmingham Live. “That’s difficult even with freedom, but we are working hard on that and hopefully in the next few days we will have some good news about that and be able to strengthen the squad.”

The Blues led twice through Jacques Maghoma and Viv Solomon-Otabur, but an Onel Hernandez double cancelled out both strikes in a thrilling contest at St Andrews.

The Verdict

Birmingham fans will be happy to know the manager isn't going to waste his squad places, but the limited availability will leave them decidedly short as the season presses on.

On yesterday's showing, they should have enough to stay out of the bottom three, but the spectre of League One will loom large for most of the season.