Jonathan Greening admitted that David Gold's bombast was a major factor behind West Bromwich Albion's dominant performance at St Andrew's.

Bryan Robson's team have repeatedly been written off this season and with a daunting fixture list on the horizon knew it was imperative to garner tangible reward against relegation rivals Birmingham.

That goal was achieved with a share of the spoils but, such was their dominance, a 1-1 draw left the dressing room disappointed.

Nevertheless, Greening took great delight in ensuring Blues chairman Gold suffered an uncomfortable afternoon following his pre-match boast that his team contained better players than Albion's.

"We all heard what he [David Gold] said and Kevin Campbell mentioned it before the game and that wound us up a bit," said Greening.

"We think we have a lot of quality in our team and that was proved today as there was only one team trying to pass the ball, play football and create chances.

"Their chairman said they had more quality than us but they didn't show it today.

"I thought we played really well and created some great chances and on another day might have been 4-0 up.

"There was a lot of pressure beforehand but, from a neutral point of view, there was only one team trying to play football while the other team were just launching it. It was like a keep-ball session at times.

"All the players are a bit deflated, as we have played well and made four or five easy chances, which we should be taking and we haven't.

"We have been doing shooting practice in training all week and burying those chances. We might have to stop doing shooting practice now," he added ruefully.

"The manager said he was proud of the way we played in this game. He likes to play football the right way and it shows, but we would have preferred to have played badly and won.

"We really wanted to win this game and set out all week in training trying to do that. I thought we played some good football and created some good chances.

"They got a dodgy penalty and went 1-0 up, so we had to dig deep to try and get a goal back. We did that and showed great character."

Greening insisted that the moral fibre shown by Albion's players will be vital during their forthcoming fixtures.

Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool are all looming followed by trips to Aston Villa and Arsenal.

It doesn't make for pleasant reading yet the midfielder is convinced that if they continue in their current vein of form then results will follow accordingly.

"The Premier League is a great place to play and we want to play there," said Greening.

"It is a big game next week at home and we need to put on a performance again. Hopefully we can stick the chances away if they come along again. I thought we played well against Chelsea and if we can do that against Manchester

United, a result is possible.