Northampton Town gained a point towards their survival ambitions with a 1-1 draw against League One’s runaway leaders Birmingham City.

An early own goal by Birmingham’s Tomoki Iwata had given the Cobblers rewards following a bright start, before the Blues’ former Northampton loanee Keshi Anderson scored an equaliser in first half injury time.

But the Cobblers kept the side that lead the table by 12 points at bay for the remainder of the contest, as they edge closer to staying up in the third tier. With nine games of the season to go, the 19th placed-Cobblers have a six point gap to the relegation zone.

The match was played in front of a record crowd at Sixfields, with over 7,900 in attendance as Northampton implement the phased opening of their new Main Stand, along with a bumper away crowd of over 1,300 fans of the leaders. It broke the previous record for the Cobblers’ current stadium set when Northampton hosted Manchester United in an EFL Cup tie in 2016.

Having beaten play-off hopefuls Leyton Orient last time out, Kevin Nolan’s side had early opportunities to surprise the league leaders. Dara Costelloe saw an effort deflected wide before Cameron McGeehan and Sam Hoskins both saw efforts miss the target.

Northampton would duly score first in 17 minutes, if in unconventional circumstances. Birmingham had attempted to play the ball out from the back but struggled to get through the Cobblers’ press. It ended up with goalkeeper Ryan Allsop playing a suspect pass to Iwata, who under pressure from Costelloe ended up playing the ball off his own post and into the net.

Things could’ve got better for the Cobblers, who came close to a second when Ben Perry fired over before McGeehan headed over.

But the Blues would equalise in first half stoppage time, as Anderson met Christoph Klarer’s cross and headed past Lee Burge.

Having been second best in the first half, Birmingham upped their attacking intensity after the break. Jay Stansfield fired wide when well placed before Willum Willumsson failed to hit the target from a good position.

Northampton sub Ali Koiki fired wide late on, while Lee Burge made a stop to keep out Alfie May from the visitors as the points ultimately wound up being shared.

A point means Northampton are now unbeaten in four outings. They will seek to continue that run in their next outing, which sees them welcome Blackpool to Sixfields next Saturday.