Alex McLeish praised his Birmingham players for overcoming their shocking start against Everton as they fought back to earn a 2-2 draw.
The Blues chief watched as the Toffees raced into a two-goal lead at St Andrews on Saturday thanks to goals from Victor Anichebe and Yakubu.
However the Blues responded well and salvaged a point thanks to Cameron Jerome and Craig Gardner's first goal for the club since joining from Aston Villa.
McLeish said: "We started terribly, we were really slow out of the traps.
"I don't know, we tried to knock the ball around, maybe thinking we could beat Everton at a slow tempo - but not a team with that ability and quality at that pace, playing as slowly as we did.
"Early on, Joe Hart made a brilliant save, fantastic spring and power to get across to Pienaar's shot. But we didn't heed the warning."
He added: "We got that early goal and we had that little bit of a power play I suppose, when we forced a succession of corners and we really put the squeeze on Everton and we were getting the full-backs up in support and the front four were finally causing some problems.
"We had to up the tempo, it was pedestrian stuff in the first 25 minutes.
"We tried to keep the ball and maybe play at the back too much without getting penetration and playing it up to the forwards.
"When we started to get it to Chucho's feet and to Cameron they were causing problems towards the end of the first half, then we were a different team," he said.