Goalkeeper Shay Given produced a superb display to earn Manchester City a point their below-par performance barely deserved against Birmingham at St Andrew’s on Sunday. The former Newcastle player made a string of fine saves, the highlight a second-half penalty stop to deny James McFadden.

It was a fourth successive draw in the Premier League for Mark Hughes’ side, who nonetheless moved into the top four on goal difference.

And Hughes, who celebrated his 46th birthday on Sunday, knows City will have to show a massive improvement if they are to sustain their challenge.

His expensively assembled squad never came to terms with the swirling wind and a fired-up Birmingham team exuding confidence after last week’s win over Sunderland.

City missed the threat up front of the injured Emmanuel Adebayor and struggled to break down a defence in which centre-backs Roger Johnson and Scott Dann were rock-solid performers.

The visitors also failed to come to grips with midfield, where Barry Ferguson was a key performer - before being sent off in injury-time for a second bookable offence - while up front the pace of Christian Benitez always kept them on their toes.

Unsurprisingly, Gareth Barry was booed by the home fans every time he touched the ball after his 12-year association with Aston Villa. And the England midfielder, in front of Fabio Capello, was caught napping in possession early on by Ferguson - but his cross-shot drifted wide.

In the ninth minute, Benitez came close to giving them the lead. His low 20-yard drive took a deflection from Vincent Kompany and crashed against Given’s left-hand post.

Benitez caused plenty of early problems, and Given made an excellent block on the edge of his box to deny the Ecuador international the opening goal.

City tried to retaliate - and Maik Taylor, replacing on-loan City man Joe Hart in goal, was unable to cling on to a fierce drive from Shaun Wright-Phillips, but Stephen Carr made the clearance.

Birmingham looked the more dangerous, and Given was forced to tip over a swerving McFadden drive after being found in space by Benitez.

In a fiery match, Ferguson became the first player to be yellow-carded after 27 minutes, when blocking off a touchline run from Craig Bellamy.

Taylor blocked an effort from Roque Santa Cruz at point-blank range after good play by Carlos Tevez and Wright-Phillips down the right flank.

Sebastian Larsson was incensed when brought down in full flight by Nigel De Jong, but the Dutch midfielder escaped a booking. Referee Mike Dean came across to the dugout and spoke to Birmingham assistant manager Roy Aitken, before allowing play to continue.

Given again excelled himself when saving a fierce attempt from Bowyer, before Dann was yellow-carded in first-half injury-time for a challenge on Tevez. Wayne Bridge was next in the book, kicking the ball away as the visitors continued to look below their best.

Alex McLeish’s side had a golden chance to take the lead after 56 minutes when De Jong handled the ball in an aerial challenge with Larsson and conceded a penalty, but Given was again his side’s saviour as he dived away to his left to keep out McFadden’s spot-kick. McFadden’s frustration at failing to score boiled over as he was yellow-carded for chopping down De Jong.

Birmingham were still the more threatening, and Cameron Jerome went just wide with a header from Larsson’s centre before Santa Cruz earned a booking for pulling back Fahey.

Santa Cruz earned a booking for pulling back Fahey, before he was replaced by Martin Petrov.

There was a rare threat to the Birmingham goal when Taylor tipped over a Tevez cross shot as City finally started to take the initiative as the game drew to a close.

And the day ended on a sour note for Birmingham as Ferguson earned his red card after knocking the ball out of Pablo Zabaleta’s hands as he attempted to take an injury-time throw.

Shay Given thanked his lucky stars after saving a penalty to earn Manchester City a point at Birmingham - but revealed his side remained disappointed with the result.

He said: “It was a bit of luck I suppose. It’s a bit of a lottery, penalties, for goalkeepers, and luckily today I’ve gone the right way and got a strong enough hand to get it away.”

The spot-kick, for Nigel de Jong’s handball, was the first awarded against City this season, and Given said: “It probably was a penalty looking back. I think Nigel’s hand was a bit high and it was the right decision from the referee. Luckily for us, we’ve managed to keep it out and we’ve kept a clean sheet.”

He added: “We’re disappointed. These are games where we’re looking to pick up three points. Credit to Birmingham, they had good spirit today and a good workrate in their team. It’s a hard enough place to come - they won last week and I suppose they took a lot of confidence from that.

“But we were coming here today looking for three points, and the same against Fulham last week when we threw away a two-goal lead, so we’ve been disappointed in the last couple of weeks.”
Birmingham boss Alex McLeish was also frustrated by the outcome after his side created a host of chances only to be kept at bay by Given.

“We’re disappointed in there (the dressing room) not to have three points,” he said, “and that’s a measure of how our team played today.”

McFadden was withdrawn shortly after his miss from the spot, and McLeish joked: “Yeah, it was a hopeless miss, wasn’t it? He deserved to come off after that! No, he was struggling a wee bit and maybe the fresh pair of legs in the end helped us - although maybe I jumped the gun a bit with James.

“He felt he could get better, but I thought ‘how long is it going to take you to not limp any more?’ I made the decision and it was a great team performance.”
Barry Ferguson was needlessly sent off deep into injury time for impeding Pablo Zabaleta as the Argentinian took a throw-in, and McLeish admitted the experienced former Scotland captain should have known better.

“He should have, he’s apologised to myself and his team-mates,” he said. “He’ll be missing next week, which is disappointing because he’s been exceptional.

“He had another influential game and it’s disappointing to lose him. We can’t afford the indiscipline over the season, especially with such a fragile squad, to go awry at any stage. Barry had a little rush of blood, maybe thought they could break up the park and score, but they had a lot to do from that situation.”
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