With young legs unfortunately come young heads and while the former have served Birmingham City so well this season, Maik Taylor lamented the latter as they allowed Everton to steal a victory with two injury-time goals.

The veteran goalkeeper, the owner of the oldest legs and head on the pitch at Goodison Park on Saturday, concedes that his team's inexperience cost them a point at a venue where they have not won for half a century.

Having turned in an awful first-half performance, in which they went behind to Ayegbeni Yakubu's scuffed tenth-minute goal, Birmingham responded resolutely in the second period and drew level with their first clear-cut opening of the match.

With just less than a quarter-of-an-hour to go, they were well set for just their third positive result away from St Andrew's this season. But instead of consolidating, Birmingham poured forward in search of a winner, only to see it come at the wrong end to confirm a result that leaves them just three points above the relegation zone with almost a third of the season gone.

While Blues manager Steve Bruce criticised his side's naiveté, Taylor also censured his youthful team-mates for allowing the lure of victory to scramble their senses in a situation when more discretion was required.

"It's a real kick in the teeth," Taylor said. "We're a young team, our tails were up, we were back in the game and we thought we could go on and win it.

"Instead of realising what we came to do, where we were playing and the fact that it is a difficult place to play, we went mad.

"We found ourselves in a great position, we would have been well happy with a point, but we were still charging forward and committing bodies to attack.

"We haven't won here for 50 years, a draw would have been a fantastic result for us. It is a lesson to be learned."

Indeed, it is one that can be extrapolated from nearly all of Birmingham's away displays this season. Typically they have lined up cautiously, started badly, gone a goal behind and ended up chasing the game.

In their previous two trips to the North West, in which they have lost to Blackburn Rovers and Manchester City, they have gone down fighting a valiant rearguard action.

"In the last half-an-hour of all the away games this season, we have come on strongly and caused all teams problems," Taylor said.

"We set our stall out away from home and try and not to get beat but it seems we're always a goal down and it's 'shackles off' for a little bit. We are certainly causing far more problems for teams in the latter stages."

The consensus on Saturday was that, having negotiated their way into stoppage time, Birmingham were the architects of their own downfall, when what was perceived as gamesmanship enraged the home support and mobilised David Moyes' team.

"The gaffer mentioned it afterwards. Maybe Ollie (Kapo) should have given the ball back to the goalie [from a throw-in, instead of kicking it long down the field], that got their tails up and the crowd involved but we can't really use that as an excuse.

"It gave them a lift, the crowd was well wound up and they threw everything into getting the win. Which, unfortunately, they got."

Bruce shared his goalkeeper's irritation: "The way we responded, I feel it was very unfortunate that we have not got something out of the game. It's disappointing, very disappointing," Bruce said. "For it to end like that is cruel. We have to learn to kill games."

Bruce also explained that he decided not to include Honduras striker Wilson Palacios in the side following the kidnap of the player's 15-year-old brother back home.

He said: "His brother has been missing since last Monday, there is no change in the situation. A ransom has been paid but the authorities are nowhere nearer sorting it out. The lad travelled with us, but he was in no fit condition to have played in such circumstances. Such things are just alien to me and everybody here."