Birmingham City captain Stephen Carr has praised ref Howard Webb for his handling of the derby stalemate with Aston Villa.

Birmingham had good claims for a penalty in the first half, when the ball struck Reo-Coker's arm, and were also entitled to question whether Webb should have sent off the Villa captain later in the game, when the midfielder aimed a kick at Craig Gardner's backside in an act of retaliation but escaped with only a booking.

Carr, however, refused to criticise Webb, insisting the World Cup final referee got both decisions right and deserved praise for the way in which he handled a fixture in which tempers have often boiled over.

"I thought it was quite a well-tempered game," the Birmingham captain said, when asked about the skirmish involving Reo-Coker and Gardner late on. "The referee did brilliantly, he got hold of it. There was nothing nasty in it. The lads behaved themselves."