Nine-man Fulham hold out for share of points

Birmingham 0 Fulham 0

Jean Tigana’s side were reduced to 10 men after 35 minutes when Rufus Brevett was red-carded for handling a Darren Purse header on the goalline. That led to the Blues being awarded the spot-kick which van der Sar clung onto from John. Then with 11 minutes left Steve Marlet kicked out in retaliation after being fouled by Robbie Savage and was also dismissed by referee Matt Messias, but Steve Bruce’s side could not capitalise.

Birmingham’s Robbie Savage looks certain to miss Wales’ European Championship qualifier in Azerbaijan on Wednesday with a groin problem.

Savage picked up the injury in an explosive game with Fulham who Tigana felt the Blues’ midfielder should have been sent off for a tackle from behind on Steve Marlet.

Wales’ manager Mark Hughes had been involved in a bitter battle with Birmingham in a bid to prevent Savage from playing on Sunday by trying to invoke the FIFA four-day rule.

He lost that particular fight and now seems unlikely to have the services of Savage during the week.

Tigana had no complaints about the Marlet red card after he had kicked out in retaliation against Savage, but felt the Wales’ midfielder should also have been dismissed.

Tigana, who confirmed he would be fining Marlet for his red card, had no complaints about the dismissal of Brevett for his handball on the line.

He said: ‘‘I asked for leaders after the game at Aston Villa last week and today we showed great resilience and team spirit to collect a point.’’

BIRMINGHAM: Vaesen, Tebily (Hughes 75), Purse, Cunningham, Kenna, Devlin, Savage (Kirovski 82), Cisse, Lazaridis, John (Morrison 75), Horsfield.

FULHAM: Van der Sar, Finnan, Melville, Goma, Brevett, Goldbaek (Inamoto 85), Legwinski (Djetou 60), Clark, Malbranque, Marlet, Boa Morte (Knight 71).

Referee: M Messias (N Yorkshire).