Birmingham City 1-1 Burton Albion
- Published
Lloyd Dyer has scored in all four of Burton's league games against his former club Birmingham
Birmingham City's pressure eventually paid off as Lukas Jutkiewicz's late header earned them a draw against Burton to dent Albion's survival hopes.
The Blues spurned plenty of first-half chances, before Lloyd Dyer fired in against his old club to give Burton the lead shortly after half-time.
Winger Jota and midfielder David Davis then both hit the woodwork for the hosts, in a game they dominated.
But Jutkiewicz headed in from Jeremie Boga's cross to keep Burton bottom.
Birmingham had won their previous three games and created enough chances to extend that run, but Brewers keeper Stephen Bywater saved from Jutkiewicz and Jota, before Davis and the Spaniard saw efforts cleared off the line.
Even after equalising late on, the hosts - who had 13 efforts on target to Burton's two - could have won it, but Jota saw his strike deflected over.
The draw extended Burton's winless run to eight games, but they did move one point closer to 21st-placed Bolton, who lost at Derby, leaving Nigel Clough's side seven points adrift of safety with five games to play.
Of Burton's remaining fixtures, Saturday's game at St Andrew's was their first of four against other sides in the bottom seven, with Hull plus struggling Sunderland and Bolton all still to face the Brewers.
Their second consecutive draw followed Dyer's confident finish, after the former Birmingham man was fed by Hope Akpan's neat ball, but it was ultimately not enough to lift them above 23rd-placed Sunderland.
Birmingham manager Garry Monk told BBC WM:
"We deserved to win that game, that's clear. We know that with the amount of good chances we had, we should have taken them and we need to be more ruthless.
"But to come from a losing position and get a point is typical of the spirit in the group, and every point is going to be vital.
"We know it's going to be a huge fight until the end of the season, it was always going to be, but I can't fault my players."
Burton Albion boss Nigel Clough told BBC Radio Derby:
"We were close again to getting the three points. It wouldn't have been, I don't think, particularly deserved on the performance today, but there's been plenty of times this season when we have deserved it and not got it.
"In the first half, despite being in a 4-4-2, we gave the ball away far too many times, and that gave Birmingham five or six chances in the first half.
"Stephen Bywater kept us in it, I think. They created and were playing with confidence. They created numerous opportunities all throughout the game."