Leeds United 1-1 Birmingham City

Paul Caddis' early penalty was his fifth goal of the season in all competition

Luke Murphy struck late on to deny Birmingham victory at Leeds.

Paul Caddis' first-half penalty looked to have given the visitors a third consecutive away league win, after Clayton Donaldson was brought down.

Leeds striker Steve Morison and Birmingham's Donaldson both headed efforts on to the post after the break.

Murphy drew the hosts level late on, smashing home after Birmingham had failed to clear Sam Byram's cross, but Leeds remain winless since November.

Neil Redfearn's side almost took an early lead when Morison brought the ball under control inside the penalty area, but he blazed over.

Instead it was Birmingham who went ahead just moments later thanks to Caddis' spot-kick, after a swift counter-attack.

Andy Shinnie played a ball through to Donaldson, who beat one man before being brought down by Liam Cooper, and Caddis calmly converted the resulting penalty into the bottom corner.

Shinnie and David Cotterill then went close to doubling Blues' lead with long-range efforts, but it was Leeds who arguably had the best chances of the rest of the first half.

Firstly, Scott Wootton headed Murphy's inviting cross wide before Wootton himself picked out Morison, who headed straight at Darren Randolph.

The hosts then had goalkeeper Marco Silvestri to thank for keeping them in the game, as he denied both Stephen Gleeson and David Davis from long range.

Both sides struck the post after the break, with Leeds' Morison glancing a header against the upright before Birmingham's Donaldson was similarly denied at the other end.

As Leeds pushed for an equaliser late on, they were rewarded when Caddis could not head Byram's cross away from danger, and Murphy drilled in to prevent a fifth defeat in seven league games.

The result sent Leeds above Rotherham into 20th place in the Championship table, while 11th-placed Birmingham are now nine points adrift of the play-off places.

Leeds manager Neil Redfearn: "We played well, we deserved to win and got in front of goal enough times to win a couple of games. If we'd have scored 10 minutes earlier we'd have won. It's not the three points we wanted but the performance, the grit and the determination. If you're fighting, you've got a chance."

Redfearn then praised goalscorer Murphy, who has been a target of criticism from fans: "He's done nothing but impress me, I had a good chat with him a month, six weeks ago to try and get him in a better place. But he's brave, he doesn't hide, gets on the ball and shows qualities you'd admire."

Birmingham manager Gary Rowett: "I think if you look at the game and forget what went before the goal, we were 1-0 up with five minutes to go and we wanted to close it out. But if you look at the minutes before that it would have been unfair on Leeds if they'd not have got at least something.

"We were quite fortunate to have been 1-0 up at that period, but we would have liked to have seen things through. We conceded a very poor goal but it was a good point in the end at what's a tough place to come."