James McFadden saw his second-half penalty saved by Shay Given as Birmingham were forced to settle for a goalless draw against Manchester City at St Andrews on Sunday.
Man City were indebted to their keeper not only for his spot-kick heroics but also a string of other superb saves to deny McFadden, Lee Bowyer and Christian Benitez as the big-spending Eastlands outfit struggled to find their best form. Man City missed the fire power upfront with star striker Emmanuel Adebayor out injured.
Christian Benitez looked lively in the first half and came close to giving them the lead in just the 9th minute. His low 20-yard drive took a deflection from Vincent Kompany and crashed against Given's left-hand post.
Man City tried to counter the attack when Shaun Wright-Phillips drove a fierce shot goal bound only to have Stephen Carr make the clearance. Birmingham looked the more dangerous, and Given was forced to tip over a swerving McFadden drive after being found in space by Benitez.
Before first half reached its climax, Given made another excellent save to deny a fierce shot from Lee Bowyer.
Alex McLeish's side had a golden chance to take the lead after 56 minutes when De Jong handled the ball in an aerial challenge with Larsson and conceded a penalty. James McFadden stepped up to take the penalty for the Blues, but Shay Given again came to the rescue of Manchester City as he dived to his left to save his shot from the penalty spot.
Birmingham were still the more threatening, and Cameron Jerome went just wide with a header from Larsson's centre before Santa Cruz earned a booking for pulling back Fahey.
Deep into injury time things turned sour as Barry Ferguson was handed a second yellow after knocking the ball out of Pablo Zabaleta's hands as he attempted to take an injury-time throw.
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