Al Hilal 3 Birmingham CIty 0

Birmingham City brought the curtain down on their Austrian tour with another defeat and still no goals.

Although they had enough chances to have easily recovered after conceding a first-half strike, Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal piled on the misery right at the end.

Goals by Mohammed Alsuwailh, after 81 minutes, and a penalty by Mohammed Alshalhoub five minutes from time put the gloss on their victory.

As an exercise in building fitness levels and bonding, the trip here cannot be faulted.

Yet to have left Austria without a goal to show for essentially mixed and inconsistent performances in three outings has to be a concern.

Blues were first to show through Gary McSheffrey, who burst into the middle, taking the Al Hilal defence by surprise, but he only succeeded in putting a low and looping right-foot volley wide.

Al Hilal were a technically good side and their short inter-passing and eagerness up front posed Blues problems.

Stuart Parnaby blocked a drive by Rumanian international Matei Radoi and when Lee clipped the ball behind Blues’ rearguard on the right, a goal seemed certain.

However, Mohammad Almahyani lashed excitedly at the ball and it sped wide.

It was a warning of things to come as Al Hilal made the breakthrough when a ball over the top caught Jared Wilson and Scott Dann out and Almahyani made no mistake.

There may have been suspicions of offside but there was no denying the quality of the first-time shot that flashed past Joe Hart.

A half-chance came Garry O’Connor’s way just inside the Al Hilal penalty area but Osama Hawsawi recovered after an earlier stumble to block.

Al Hilal nearly took a two-goal advantage into the half-time break after Almahyani cleverly took the ball from Dann on the Blues byline and laid it back for Mohammed Alshalhoub.

He was barely six yards out but Martin Taylor, who again performed well, got his body in the way to deny the sidefooted attempt.

Blues made half-a-dozen changes at the interval, and for the opening 10 minutes of the second period they were the better side.

Lee Bowyer drove them forward and Kevin Phillips movement and postioning was problematic for Al Hilal.

Phillips wasn’t quite able to connect with a flicked header from a Stephen Carr cross.

Yet, out of nothing, Al Hilal almost doubled their advantage.

A nifty one-two of backheels opened up Blues on halfway and although they were sure the ball had not been kept in play by Almahyani, play continued and Alshalhoub was sent clear.

He tried to do too much when a straightforward shot was needed and Carr kept his cool to take the ball off his toes as he tried to dribble past challenge after challenge.

In the 64th minute, with his first touch after coming on, Roger Johnson almost equalised.

He met McSheffrey’s corner with a diving header and connected firmly, but the ball bounced just past the post.

Keith Fahey threatened by advancing to the edge of the penalty area following a loose pass by Aziz and a decent strike was saved by the goalkeeper.

Blues were gaining momentum, yet had to stay aware defensively as Al Hilal’s clever attackers buzzed about.

Mohammed Aldossary came to Al Hilal’s rescue in the 71st minute as the Saudis survived a goalmouth melee.

He threw himself in to deflect Martin Taylor’s close-range shot and then got in the way of Fahey’s piledriver to head it over the crossbar.

McSheffrey was next to concern Al Hilal with a lovely flighted free-kick from 25 yards that had the goalkeeper beaten but glided just over.

Still the goal wouldn’t come for Blues, despite more efforts from Phillips, Martin Taylor and McSheffrey.

As often is the case, the sucker punch was delivered with nine minutes to go.

Alshalhoub snaffled possession midway in Blues’ half and slotted the ball through to Mohammed Alsuwailh who struck his shot between Maik Taylor’s legs.

It got worse for Blues when Al Halil broke from a corner that had seen Roger Johnson near-post header cleared off the goal line.

Hawsawi charged forward, leading the breakaway, and Maik Taylor made a good stop, pushing the ball out when he let rip from 15 yards.

As Abdulaziz Aldawsari sprinted to the rebound, Carr was judged to have pushed him in the back as he shot and Alshalhoub duly stuck away the resulting penalty kick.

BIRMINGHAM CITY: Hart (Maik Taylor h/t),  Parnaby (Carr h/t), Wilson, Carsley (Damien Johnson h/t), Dann (Roger Johnson, 64), Martin Taylor, Larsson (Fahey h/t), Ferguson. (Bowyer h/t), McFadden (Phillips h/t), O’Connor, McSheffrey. Substitutes: Rowe, Doyle, Jerome, Bent, Mutch, Queudrue.