Birmingham earned a valuable point which will aid their fight against the drop more than their opponents Wolves in a fiery 1-1 draw at St Andrews. Wolves failed to capitalise on taking an early lead allowing Birmingham to level before the break and then were unable to make their numerical advantage count as the host's were reduced to ten-men with still an hour to play in what was an eventful first 45 minutes.
Boss Mick McCarthy will see this as two points dropped in their fight against relegation and they remain one point from safety with just three games to save themselves.
The visitor's had the best possible start with a penalty award after just seven minutes when Blues keeper Ben Foster brought down Stephen Ward. Steven Fletcher ignored the protests of the Birmingham players to convert easily from 12 yards.
But Wolves have one the worst goal differences in the top flight and a terrible mistake from Michael Mancienne allowed the home side to restore parity when his header went straight to Sebastian Larsson who made no mistake lashing the ball home.
Yet within a couple of minutes Birmingham were reduced in numbers as referee Kevin Friend adjudged Craig Gardner to have dived and a second yellow was produced.
If the first half was frenetic, after the break the game was a disappointment and was scrappy and scoreless.
Referee: Kevin Friend
Venue: St Andrews Attendance: 26,072
Birmingham scorers: Larsson 27 Wolves scorers: Fletcher 7 (pen)
BIRMINGHAM 26 Foster (yellow card) 02 Carr 05 Johnson 06 Ridgewell 28 Jiranek 04 Bowyer (yellow card) 07 Larsson 08 Gardner (two yellow cards, red card) 12 Ferguson 09 Phillips (Beausejour 31) 10 Jerome
Substitutes 13 Doyle, 21 Parnaby, 32 Davies, 18 Fahey, 22 Hleb, 23 Beausejour, 14 Derbyshire
WOLVES 13 Hennessey 03 Elokobi 05 Stearman (Hammill 46) 06 Craddock (yellow card) 11 Ward (Vokes 82) 21 Mancienne 32 Foley 08 Henry (yellow card) 17 Jarvis (Hunt 67) 24 O'Hara (yellow card) 10 Fletcher
Substitutes 01 Hahnemann, 16 Berra, 12 Hunt, 19 Hammill, 20 Milijas, 34 Guedioura, 18 Vokes
