West Bromwich Albion manager Bryan Robson was left to bemoan his side's inept finishing as Birmingham scrambled a fortuitous 1-1 draw in the Premiership relegation battle at St Andrew's.

Albion were guilty of some dreadful first-half misses, with Diomansy Kamara, Kevin Campbell and Jan Kozak being the chief culprits.

In the end the visitors needed a goal by substitute Nathan Ellington his first for three-and-a-half months - to cancel out a penalty by Blues striker Mikael Forssell.

Albion remain three points ahead of Blues although Steve Bruce's side have a game in hand and a slightly superior goal difference.

The Birmingham defence seemed all at sea from the first minute, with Martin Taylor and Martin Latka looking unsure of themselves.

Robson said: "We had three chances in the first half. They were not really chances but absolute sitters. We are disappointed we didn't put them away.

"Kamara and Campbell missed good opportunities and Kozak is probably our best finisher so I was surprised when his rebound shot was kicked off the line.

"Those three chances should have put us in front at half time but we keep missing too many good chances in games. If you keep doing that, you will always be struggling in matches.

"But I am delighted with the character shown by the players. It is difficult when you go a goal down in a game like that but we kept playing our football and created chances and I've got to give my players credit for that.

"It is psychologically favourable for us to still be outside the bottom three. It is good for the players' confidence and gives you something to build on again. Our last three performances have been very good although the results haven't been what we would have wanted."

Robson believed the penalty awarded against defender Curtis Davies, after a challenge by Forssell, was harsh and also believed Campbell was fouled in the build-up move.

He said: "The referee helped Birmingham out because it was a foul first of all on Kevin Campbell and Mikael Forssell knew what he was doing after that.

"He has clipped Curtis's heels and then got around the other side of him but the referee gave a penalty when we should have had a free kick."

Bruce said his team were fortunate to escape with a draw after Albion's glut of missed opportunities. He said: "We have sometimes bemoaned our luck this season but today a huge slice has gone in our favour. I'm sure Bryan Robson will be disappointed not to have won the game.

"We have got to admit we were fortunate to get away with a point when you defend the way we defended today.

"Some of the stuff we did was shambolic defending on our part and the goal sums up the way it was for us today.

"Martin Taylor, Martin Latka and Mario Melchiot all made mistakes in the build-up.

"We were constantly under pressure when West Brom put the ball forward because we couldn't deal with it.

"We'll have to handle the pressure of the situation we are in. We have done that for the last six or seven home games but today there was some elementary bad play and we didn't defend well as a unit or individually."

As for the penalty award, Bruce said: "I thought Davies was fortunate to get away with a first-half challenge on Mikael and, from where I was sitting, the penalty we did get looked blatant to me.