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On 7 minutes came Birmingham's first chance. Brian Jensen was put under pressure and scuffed his kick right back at a Birmingham player, who slotted it through for Kevin Phillips. Fortunately for us Michael Duff made a fantastic sliding tackle to stop him going one on one.
The replacement referee, in fairness, had a bit of a shocker and awarded a few strange decisions, one of which was the decision to book Steven Thompson - for what nobody knows.
Nearly half an hour into the game, Burnley were on top and it came as no real surprise when Paterson weaved in and out of defenders to produce a great cross to the back post where Chris McCann was there to nod the ball into the net. And Burnley showed no signs of sitting back on the 1-0 lead when another great cross was delivered into the box from a free kick for McCann to head just wide.
After that, the game slowed down a bit for 10 minutes, neither side being able to keep the ball. The next chance was in the 40th minute when a deflected cross for Burnley came down for a header straight at the keeper.
Birmingham immediately improved at the start of the second half when Kemy Agustien went on a great run down the left side, eventually to produce a cross that was cleared out of the box. But Burnley were still threatening when Wade Elliott got into the box, only for his cross-cum-shot to lob the keeper and hit the crossbar.
In the 65th minute Martin Paterson, who had worked tirelessly as usual, came off for Robbie Blake, who was fairly poor today. Also, Cameron Jerome came on for Birmingham in place of Garry O'Connor. He looked dangerous from the moment he stepped on the pitch, almost going through from a long ball with his lightning-quick pace.
Thankfully for us, Beast hastily cleared before Jerome could get on the end of it. Burnley were still pressing in search of a second goal, and Robbie Blake laid off Michael Duff to shoot just wide, when all the ground thought it was destined for the top corner of the net.
It was in the 77th minute when Birmingham broke through a so far excellent Claret defence when all our defenders were up for a corner. Birmingham executed a quick counter attack, and suddenly it was 3 Birmingham players on 1 Burnley defender. The ball was given to James McFadden, who tried to slot it past Brian Jensen. The keeper was up to it and got a foot to it, but Cameron Jerome was there to tap in on the line.
Still, though, Burnley kept going and there was a VERY big handball shout when Lee Carsley slid in and handled a Wade Elliott cross. The referee, however, didn't agree with the majority of the crowd and disappointingly pointed for a corner.
In the 87th minute Birmingham won a corner. The ball was delivered into the box, and there was a free header for Taylor, who rose higher than everybody else to head the ball, amazingly, completely in the wrong direction.
Right at the death, Elliott again got in behind the defence and crossed, but Chris McCann couldn't quite direct the header goalwards and we had to settle for a draw. I am sure a lot of people would settle for a draw against top of the table, but given the way we played the end result could have been much better.
THE GOOD - Burnley's defending and overall performance
THE BAD - We wuz robbed!
THE UGLY - The referee Lee Probert- what an awful game for him (especially the penalty decision)