Many of those missed chances came in the first quarter of the game, a period during which the points could have been gift wrapped and been ready for delivery to every Burnley fan on Christmas morning.
But every one of them was missed and eventually we had to come from behind to get what we thought was going to be a win until that late goal cost us another two points as we made it four draws in five games.
Sean Dyche made three changes to the team that had drawn a week earlier against Watford. Both Michael Duff and Chris McCann returned from suspension at the expense of Kevin Long and David Edgar, and there was also a change at left back where Joseph Mills, who started the season as first choice, came in for the injured Danny Lafferty.
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| A goal with a bit of Robbie about it from Danny Ings |
Birmingham had a team full of teenagers, and some were to impress, but Burnley's start in this game was as good as anything we've seen for some time, except that the goals just didn't come.
They should have but unfortunately we didn't take advantage of any of the presentable chances that came our way. Martin Paterson had said ahead of the game that he felt he had to start contributing more in terms of goalscoring. Unfortunately he missed three of the chances.
The first, he shot tamely into the hands of Jack Butland but with the second it took a very good save from Butland to deny him after a brilliant ball from Ross Wallace, who had his best game of the season, played him in. For the third, he got clear on the right hand side, beat Butland but saw his shot go wide of the far post.
It wasn't just Paterson though. Chris McCann missed one, so did Charlie Austin, and Michael Duff should have done better when he got the opportunity following a corner.
In some ways it was so reminiscent of the start we made at Birmingham in the promotion season when he missed a catalogue of chances, although on that occasion it was after Paterson had given us an early lead.
You can only get away with missing them for so long and then you quite often pay the price, and that's what we did on the half hour when Birmingham took the lead. They'd just started to come into the game and one of their young players Rob Hall was causing us the most problems.
It was his work that cost us two yellow cards for McCann and Mills and the Mills card proved even costlier when it led to the opening goal. We half cleared it but only back to Hall whose perfect cross saw central defender Curtis Davies get in front of McCann to head home.
The scoreline at that stage really was a nonsense but for the remainder of the half it was Birmingham who held the upper hand and only an outstanding finger tip save from Lee Grant kept the score down to one at half time.
Birmingham got on the front foot after the break too, but it didn't last long and then the Clarets really did start to dominate the game and we got so much on top there was very little action for the visiting Burnley fans to see in front of them with virtually all the play down the far end.
We thought we'd levelled too. Kieran Trippier got on to a ball from Wallace and hit over a delightful cross. As the ball left his boot, he was hit by a very poor challenge from Mitch Hancox. As he went down it was Austin who got onto the cross to head home only to see referee Eddie Ilderton, incredibly, pointing for a free kick.
We'd had a couple of incidents in the first half when Ilderton had badly failed to play an advantage, but here, with the ball going into the net less than three seconds after the foul, it was a very poor decision. Yes, he yellow carded Hancox, and rightly so, but he should have allowed play to continue.
Worse still. Trippier, because of the ridiculous rule that the referee can do nothing about, had to leave the field so we took the free kick with only ten players on the pitch. Butland caught the ball and Birmingham launched an attack down our right back side with Ilderton blatantly refusing Trippier permission to re-enter the game.
Sean Dyche made his first change soon after that incident, bringing on Keith Treacy for Paterson. Within six minutes of the change we'd turned the deficit into a lead although Treacy hadn't played a major part.
The first was a really good goal. Trippier played the ball for Dean Marney who flicked it into the path of Danny Ings on the right hand side of the box. Ings, with his first movement, went past Davies and then slipped a shot beyond Butland into the far corner.
It was Ings' first goal of the season and a real quality finish. "It was the sort of goal Robbie used to score," someone said on the way home. I couldn't disagree.
Ings had played really well in his second start of the season. I'd been somewhat mystified by him getting the man of the match on the ground last week but here he was a real contender and two minutes later he played his part in the goal that saw us go in front.
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| St. Andrew's free kick from Ross Wallace for the Burnley fans to enjoy |
He forced Davies into a foul a few yards outside the penalty box to earn us a free kick. After some discussion it was left to Wallace and Trippier with the former hitting the perfect kick right into the postage stamp to Butland's right.
Lee Clark said after the game that two goalkeepers wouldn't have saved it and he was right. I recall Wallace scoring from a free kick at St. Andrew's four seasons ago, at the other end if my memory serves me correctly.
We were on our way back from a 2-2 draw at Southampton and that Wallace goal, the winner for Preston, meant we had still to get a result a week later to earn a play off place. At least Wallace didn't take his shirt off yesterday and get sent off.
Birmingham reacted by bringing on Chris Burke and then Wade Elliott, the latter's arrival bringing a standing ovation from the Burnley fans. For much of the remainder of the game it didn't look as though it would make any difference.
Yes, Birmingham pushed forward as you would expect, but we defended well and until the 89th minute we hadn't allowed them a single chance. Then, a clearance was headed back forward, Duff allowed it to go through and there was Zigic right in front of our goal, clear and able to score an equaliser.
With just over a minute remaining and then the board going up showing five extra minutes, I thought we might have some real defending to do. In truth we didn't. Birmingham didn't have another chance and the only sight on goal for any player was when Sam Vokes, just on as a substitute, got away on the right hand side but too far out to threaten Butland.
And so it ended all square, our fourth draw in the last five games.
This really should have been a win. I thought it was our best performance under Dyche and there were so many positives, albeit against a struggling Birmingham side. It was so disappointing at the final whistle to only have a point. It really should have been more.
That just left time for the Burnley fans to acknowledge the performance of the players as they came over, and to the two Birmingham players who joined them in applauding the away fans. The relationship that Steven Caldwell and Elliott have with the Burnley fans very much remains.
There was one final salute too, for one of the Birmingham stewards. One Burnley fan during the first half, he posts on Eli's message board as fidelcastro, suggested he looked like Eddie Murphy and that quickly led to chants.
The steward, who had spent the week acting as security for X-Factor winner James Arthur, loved in. He joined in, he applauded the Burnley fans and I think loved the attention he was getting.
That's it. It's the last game before Christmas and for the first time since 1979, when we were one division above them, we go into the festive season above Blackburn Rovers in the league. As we sit and enjoy our turkey and they tuck into a Venky's chicken that really is something to enjoy.
Merry Christmas - and hopefully a winning report on Boxing Day.
The teams were;
Birmingham: Jack Butland, Will Packwood, Curtis Davies, Steven Caldwell, Mitch Hancox, Rob Hall (Wade Elliott 76), Callum Reilly, Hayden Mullins, Ravel Morrison (Chris Burke 71), Nathan Redmond, Nikola Zigic. Subs not used: Colin Doyle, Pablo , Emmitt Delfouneso, Morgaro Gomis, Josh Hawker.
Yellow Cards: Ravel Morrison, Mitch Hancox, Curtis Davies, Hayden Mullins.
Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Joseph Mills, Dean Marney (Sam Vokes 90+3), Chris McCann, Ross Wallace, Danny Ings (Marvin Bartley 88), Martin Paterson (Keith Treacy 63). Subs not used: Brian Jensen, David Edgar, Kevin Long, Junior Stanislas.
Yellow Cards: Chris McCann, Joseph Mills.
Referee: Eddie Ilderton (Tyne & Wear).
Attendance: 17,284 (including 735 Clarets).