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It wasn’t just Cohen Bramall’s Birmingham City debut tonight, it was his first competitive outing in professional football.

The young left-back was involved in parent club Arsenal’s pre-season tour of Australia and was one of their under-23s’ stand-out performers in the second half of last season, but Championship football with Blues will pose different tests.

A debut against Bournemouth will have whetted the appetite for sure - Alex Dicken was at St Andrew’s and followed the former Hednesford Town man’s evening closely.

The action

Bramall had a rather shaky start to the game, understandably given it was technically his professional debut, Two passes went astray before a slip gifted Bournemouth possession in dangerous territory, but he reacted swiftly and intercepted a dangerous pass before breaking down the left.

The opening eight minutes left a lot to be desired but it was Bramall who sparked the game into life with a neat one-two with Jacques Maghoma before firing in a cross that was cleared behind for a corner.

And from the resulting corner, Blues took the lead as Jonathan Grounds headed across goal for Kieftenbeld to slam home from close range.

Bramall looks a bundle of energy and was constantly galloping up and down the left flank. A superb delivery midway through the first half wasn’t met by Vassell, who was Blues’ only man in the middle on this particular occasion.

There were a few mistakes, but on the whole the first 45 minutes of Bramall’s Blues career were packed with positives.

Bournemouth’s equaliser within 52 seconds of the restart came down his side after his defensive colleagues failed to clear their lines properly.

His enthusiasm to get forward presented him with a rare shooting opportunity. Half-time substitute Lukas Jutkiewicz couldn’t quite control Maghoma’s right wing cross, but his touch fell into the path of Bramall who cut across the ball a little.

Bramall showed his appetite for the ugly side of the game shortly afterwards with a crunching tackle of Fraser to earn a roar of approval from the home supporters.

And that was one of his final involvements as he was withdrawn with 12 minutes remaining. The 21-year-old received a warm ovation from the Blues crowd clearly encouraged by his speed and flexibility in attack.

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What next?

Bramall will start against Reading on Saturday and will be eager to build upon a solid first performance in Royal Blue.

While cup matches are always important, Blues and Bramall’s focus is on earning promotion from the Championship this season and Saturday’s game will see more than double the 8,245 attendance at St Andrew’s for tonight’s match.

Bramall said he wants people to forget about his rise from non-league to Arsenal in the space of six months - the rest of his career starts here.