Given to the rescue for shaky City
MARK HUGHES admitted his superstar Manchester City line-up were second best as keeper Shay Given saved them from the brink of defeat at St Andrews.
Given kept out a second half penalty from Blues striker James McFadden to earn City the point they needed to take them into the Premier League top four.
But Hughes was still not happy, however, admitting his side need to improve to challenge for honours.
“In terms of performance level, that is the poorest we have played in sometime,” Hughes said. “We got in good positions where we did create, but we didn’t have the quality in the final third to pick the lock.
“We will take it as a positive, teams are taking points of each other – we will be there in the mix but it is not going to be steady progress, some days we will have days where we will disappoint.”
Given proved the City hero after keeping out McFadden’s 56th minute spot-kick after Nigel de Jong handled.
Christian Benitez earlier struck a post for Birmingham, while City went closest through Craig Bellamy, who had a shot blocked by Roger Johnson.
Birmingham were reduced to ten men late on after Barry Ferguson was sent off for a second yellow card.