Birmingham City came from two goals down to earn a 2-2 draw with Everton at St Andrews in the Premier League on Saturday.
In a battle of two of the hardest teams to beat in the league neither was, as goals from Victor Anichebe and Aiyegbini Yakubu were cancelled out by Cameron Jerome and Craig Gardner.
It was a game of high drama and Blues goalkeeper Joe Hart continued to stake his claim for an England place at the World Cup with a stunning early save to deny a curling effort from Steven Pienaar.
Hart was beaten shortly after, however. Mikel Arteta and Pienaar were involved before Phil Neville collected the ball on the right and fed it through to Anichebe. The striker turned Liam Ridgewell in the Birmingham area and sent a fierce effort past the despairing Hart.
Not long later the Toffees made it 2-0. Arteta and Pienaar were again involved. The South African collected the ball from the Spaniard and stood up a cross which was met by Yakubu who rise above Roger Johnson to head past Joe Hart.
Birmingham regrouped from this however and hit back resiliently as shortly after Ridgewell knocked Scott Dann’s pass on to Keith Fahey and the Irishman crossed for the in-form Jerome to finish to the net on the turn.
That was the way it stayed until half-time, but six minutes into the second half the scores were leveled. Jerome got a touch to a long kick from Hart and knocked it perfectly to Gardner, the former Aston Villa man blasting a low drive past the diving Tim Howard.
The excitement died down thereafter but Tim Cahill had a late chance to win it for Everton, only to fail to test Hart significantly with his effort as the spoils were shared.