Walsall were back in action on Tuesday evening when they made the short trip to St Andrew's where they took on Birmingham City in their opening group game of the Bristol Street Motors Trophy.
The first goal of the game didn't arrive until the early stages of the second-half as former Bluenose Charlie Lakin lashed the ball home from a Connor Barrett ball into the box, Connor doing well to break into space before finding his man.
Birmingham levelled the scores with five minutes of the game remaining as Christoph Klarer prodded the ball home following a post-corner scramble inside the Walsall area.
The match ultimately went to a post-match penalty shoot-out to decide which team secured the bonus point, with - taking it -.
EFL TROPHY - SOUTHERN GROUP A
| BIRMINGHAM | 1-1 | WALSALL |
| KLARER (84') | GOALSCORERS | LAKIN (48') |
| BIELIK - SCORED JUTKIEWICZ - SCORED PAIK - SAVED STANSFIELD - SCORED MAY - SAVED |
PENALTIES |
ALLEN - SCORED LAKIN - SCORED MATT - SAVED JELLIS - SCORED CLEARY - SCORED |
| ASSISTS | C. BARRETT (48') | |
| 81 | POSSESSION (%) | 19 |
| 26 | SHOTS (TOTAL) | 8 |
| 6 | SHOTS (ON TARGET) | 4 |
| 14 | BLOCKED SHOTS | 2 |
| 3 | GOALKEEPER SAVES | 5 |
| 14 | CORNERS | 4 |
| 8 | FOULS | 8 |
| 0 | YELLOW CARDS | 2 |
| 0 | RED CARDS | 0 |
| AT | ST. ANDREW'S |
| ATTENDANCE | 9,752 (1,009) |
| REFEREE | SAM PURKISS (LONDON) |
BIRMINGHAM CITY
Allsop; Gardner-Hickman, Klarer, Davies (Bielik, 55'), Khela (Cochrane, 54'), Leonard (Paik, 55'), Iwata, Wright (Jutkiewicz, 76'), Stansfield, Yokoyama (Hansson, 67'), May
Unused: Mayo; Williams
WALSALL
Hornby; Okagbue, Williams, Allen; Stirk 🟨; Barrett, Earing (Jellis, 69'), Lakin, Weir; Maher 🟨 (Cleary, 69'); Lowe (Matt, 82')
Unused: Kilroy, Thomas, Wragg, Johnson