Birmingham City 1-1 Coventry City: Blues held at home by tenants
- Published
Gustavo Hamer became Coventry's leading scorer with his fifth goal of the season.
Birmingham's wait for a home win went on as they were pegged back by Coventry City in the meeting of landlords and tenants at St Andrew's Trillion Trophy Stadium.
Jeremie Bela's emphatic penalty put Blues ahead after full-back Sam McCallum's lunge brought down Ivan Sanchez.
Ben Sheaf showed neat footwork before teeing up Gustavo Hamer to sweep an equaliser past Neil Etheridge.
Bela and Harlee Dean both sent shots just past the post, but Birmingham remain without a home win since 28 October.
The pre-match prospects for goals had looked slim with Birmingham netting once in their previous six games and Coventry drawing six blanks in eight matches, but both sides served up chances in an open affair.
The hosts were ahead with their first foray into the Coventry box as Bela's spot-kick ended a 19-game goal drought stretching back to 26 September - having scored twice in the opening three games of the season.
But a lapse from the home defence handed the visitors a deserved equaliser as Callum O'Hare was allowed to keep the ball in play and find Sheaf who set up Hamer.
Scott Hogan wasted a golden chance to restore the lead before the break, heading straight at Sky Blues keeper Ben Wilson.
Aitor Karanka's side carved out a string of second-half chances to take all three points and almost ended Coventry's resistance in the final moments when the ball broke for Lukas Jutkiewicz six yards out, but Wilson pulled off a fine save.
Birmingham have picked up five points from their past nine games and hover just above the relegation places in 20th, while Coventry stayed in 17th.
Birmingham boss Aitor Karanka told BBC WM 95.6:
"Once again it was the same story, the same film, Groundhog Day, because we started the game really well, we scored that goal and then the team started to lose confidence.
"And then once again one stupid mistake cost us a goal. The second half we were better and had chances to score right until the end.
"Every single day is one mistake like that and it's difficult to take because you have 10, 12, 13 other players fighting on the pitch and these mistakes are costing us a lot."
Coventry manager Mark Robins told BBC Coventry and Warwickshire:
"I'm disappointed with the penalty - another penalty conceded - but if you put things into context they have had a lot of rest and we played on Wednesday night, it's really difficult.
"The reaction to giving the penalty away was the right one. The goal we scored was outstanding and we created some really good openings to win the game and we were unfortunate not to stick one of them away.
"It's another big week for us and they're coming thick and fast, and hopefully we can get people available for it and back fit."