James Collins grabbed a point for Villa with a well taken half-volley from close range to cancel out Roger Johnson’s fortuitous opener early in the 2nd half in a game that was low on quality, but high on chances, and will have done little to ease the nerves of fans of either team.

Once again it was a case of early chances wasted, Gabby practically served the opener on the plate thanks to some comedy goal keeping from Ben Foster, only to slice his effort over the bar. The woodwork came to Foster’s rescue at least four times and other chances fell narrowly wide or over.

Birmingham had plenty of opportunities themselves and will feel that they could and should have scored more than one with better finishing.

In the end though, it was an open, if at times scrappy, derby game and in normal circumstances we’d have to feel reasonably satisfied with a point – that’s eight league games unbeaten against City now – but a draw doesn’t help either side particularly at the moment.

A point of concern, perhaps, as both teams now head on separate tracks towards the end of the season, is that David Bentley looks like he’ll have an impact with City, he won the man of the match award today and his quality shone though. He also seemed to link up well with Hleb and with Robbie Keane possibly on the way to St Andrews, we can’t assume that we’ll finish above them.

By contrast, it’s hard to spot many signs of improvement among the Villa side. Stewart Downing was employed in the central play maker role behind John Carew and ahead of the double six pairing of Petrov and Reo-Coker, and Gabby retained on the left wing. I’m sure that will be the subject of much debate among the fans, but both players could have scored from these unfamiliar positions and I wouldn’t feel confident saying the other would have finished the chance had they been there instead.

However, it has to be said that Stewart Downing is a winger and Gabby Agbonlahor is a striker and although there’s a case to make for asking them to play different roles, in the end, it has to be assumed that they’d be better employed in their natural positions.

On the other flank, Marc Albrighton expressed his acute disappointment at missing the last two derbies recently and I can’t help wondering whether this game meant a bit too much to him, he continues to be something of a liability when tracking back and didn’t deliver his best performance we’ve ever seen in the final third.

But rather than single individuals out for any particular praise or criticism, the biggest concern for me was the apparent inability to make a decision quickly, which is a problem prevalent throughout the side now. I’d love to see some comparative possession analysis showing how long our players have the ball at the feet when not dribbling, i.e. looking around trying to decide who to pass to. It’s certainly not pass and move right now!

Time and again they were their own worst enemy by getting caught not only in possession, but clearly in at least two minds. It could be a confidence thing, they’ve certainly shown signs of being capable of playing an expansive, flowing game at times in recent games when they appear to have brushed the pressure off their shoulders.

It could be that they’re still trying to adapt to Houllier’s vision of how they should play. It could be that they’re just not technically proficient enough to play a more sophisticated brand of football. Or it could be that this was a just derby game, a whole different kettle of fish, and we shouldn’t read too much into it.

There probably isn’t too much point analysing the performances in too much detail, this is a game we could easily have won by fair few goals, or equally, had they taken their chances in the manner Newcastle did, Birmingham could have been the victor by some margin themselves.

As ever, it just comes down to burying chances when they come. They came today and, despite my concerns about the team’s familiarity with the game plan, there were enough chances to have grabbed all the points today.

Now, taking each game one at a time, we look to the next one; Man City at Villa Park. For now, at least, we are out of the bottom three and we did, for once, manage to come back from behind.

That’s something. On to the next one, I’m actually just glad this one, in particular, is over.

Aston Villa Starting XI: Friedel, Walker, Dunne, Collins, Clark, Albrighton, Petrov, Reo-Coker, Downing, Carew, Agbonlahor. Subs: Marshall, Hogg, Baker, Delfouneso, Cuellar, Pires, Bannan.
Birmingham Starting XI: Foster, Carr, Murphy, Johnson, Ridgewell, Gardner, Bentley, Ferguson, Derbyshire, Fahey, Hleb. Subs: Taylor, Bowyer, Phillips, Zigic, Beausejour, Mutch, Jiranek.