Blackburn Rovers 1-1 Birmingham City

Lukas Jutkiewicz started his senior career at Swindon more than a decade ago

Gianfranco Zola's search for a first win as Birmingham City manager goes on as his side drew at Blackburn.

City were in front inside three minutes as keeper Jason Steele brought down David Cotterill and Lukas Jutkiewicz converted the penalty.

Rovers levelled in first-half stoppage time when Danny Graham swept in from 10 yards after Derrick Williams' cut-back.

Both sides had chances to win it, but Sam Gallagher fired over and Jason Steele superbly denied Ryan Shotton.

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The visitors could not have wished for a better start, with Jutkiewicz's spot-kick conversion meaning he has now scored four of his side's five goals since Zola took charge.

And Birmingham would have been two goals up had Steele not partially atoned for his penalty concession by saving well from Cotterill.

Rovers gradually began to get back into the game and Hope Akpan saw his header saved at the second attempt by Tomasz Kuszczak.

Graham should have scored on the stroke of half-time when he headed wide from eight yards but almost immediately found the net for his 11th of the season after a fine Blackburn move.

Blues lost keeper Kusczak at half-time because of blurred vision but both sides showed plenty of appetite to find a winner in the second half.

Jutkiewicz was relieved to see an offside flag after missing a sitter and Akpan blasted too high for Rovers, but both teams had to settle for a point in the end.

The Blues have now failed to win any of Zola's first eight games in charge, while Blackburn remain in the Championship relegation places.

Blackburn manager Owen Coyle: "It's not the start anybody envisaged. I think it's such an avoidable penalty to give away and, of course, that plays into Birmingham's hands.

"At 10 minutes in, given we'd started with two strikers, we had to change to match up. From that point on, we dominated the game and really took charge of it.

"The equaliser was no more than we deserved at that point and in the second half we were the aggressors again, but always accepting Birmingham would be dangerous on the counter attack."

Birmingham manager Gianfranco Zola: "I'm disappointed because I think we created our own problems. We went one up, were in total control, had a great chance to get the second goal and then we stopped.

"We started making silly mistakes in the passing - something that has been very good so far. We stopped and we allowed them to come back. We fed their confidence by making those silly choices.

"Then it's been an open game in the second half. They had one good chance and we had two great chances. The disappointing thing for me is we let them come off the hook."