Aston Villa manager David O'Leary was left to rue a series of missed chances as his side were held at home to local rivals Birmingham. Darius Vassell opened the scoring for Villa but should have gone on to grab a first-half hat-trick.
"It's a game we should have won, and it's a game we should have won well," O'Leary said.
"Good luck to Birmingham for fighting back but we had loads of chances to wrap up the three points."
A superb strike from Thomas Hitzlsperger put Villa 2-0 up, but a Mikael Forssell goal and Stern John's late equaliser denied O'Leary's side a fifth straight win.
"We did not play in the last half-hour," O'Leary added. "Too many of our players didn't perform in that period and that brought them back into the game.
"When we were performing, there was only one team in it - and that was us.
"It also didn't help us that we lost two influential players in Ronny Johnsen and Gareth Barry through injury."
MMIX
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