Everton 1 Birmingham City 1:IT IS a mark of Birmingham City's serene return to the Premier League that Alex McLeish can identify with the causes of Mark Hughes's demise at Manchester City. He can only hope Carson Yeung is not the kind of foreign investor who wants his expectations both raised and realised before Christmas.

The Birmingham manager was ebullient at Goodison Park after his side dipped below par against Everton yet departed with a point and their unbeaten record improved to nine matches. Sandwiched between City and Liverpool in the table, they displayed a resilience that underlines their seamless transition but not the invention to hurt an Everton side immersed in the club’s worst home run since 1972.

Everton made a vibrant, incisive start that suggested the clubs occupied false positions in the table. From a throw-in on the right by Tony Hibbert, Louis Saha chested the ball into Diniyar Bilyaletdinov’s path and the left-footed Russia international stepped inside Lee Bowyer to sweep his fourth goal in nine Everton games past Joe Hart. They should have had the luxury of a two-goal lead inside eight minutes only for Saha to be wrongly denied by an offside flag. Somewhat inevitably, the visitors levelled, Sebastian Larsson exchanging passes with Christian Benitez and eluding Marouane Fellaini before firing past Tim Howard.

Parity drew the sting out of Everton’s performance and it needed an exquisite challenge from Tony Hibbert on Cameron Jerome to deny the forward a clear sight of goal. Birmingham remained resilient throughout. Worryingly for David Moyes, that was enough to extend Everton’s winless run at Goodison to eight matches. Guardian Service