Dubious delight rewards Bruce

Birmingham City 1 Tottenham Hotspur 1

A bore draw would be the obvious way to describe this tag match between two mediocre teams, but both managers claimed a victory of sorts.

Birmingham City's "delighted" manager Steve Bruce saw his side gain the point that should guarantee another season of Premiership football and he got Jermaine Pennant's comeback from a spell in prison out of the way without incident.

Tottenham, meanwhile, remain on course for a potential Uefa Cup place. Despite slipping to ninth, they moved to within three points of sixth-placed Bolton.

Pennant became the first Premiership player to appear wearing an electronic tag following last Thursday's early release from a three-month jail sentence imposed for drink driving while disqualified. Bruce surprisingly started him if only to sate the "media circus" he described around the on-loan Arsenal player, who now seems certain to complete a permanent transfer in the summer.

He left the "action" with the match goalless after 56 minutes. Tottenham took the lead three minutes later when substitute Stephen Kelly showed goalscoring class beyond a defender's reputation, chesting down a Michael Carrick pass and finishing with a low half-volley.

Darren Carter, who physically reinforced his verbal claim to be Robbie Savage's long-term replacement, capitalised on an Erik Edman error to equalise seven minutes later.

"We could have won and we needed to, but I can live with a draw because Birmingham had a good chance at the end," admitted Martin Jol. "Bolton have been the revelation of the season, but Europe is still a realistic aim for us.

"There are not many players in our squad who have won things so we have to win games like this to get that habit," he added, "but we have good things to look forward to."

He was so laidback that the Tottenham manager was not even concerned by striker Robbie Keane's apparent strop down the tunnel when Mido got the call from the substitutes' bench ahead of him with 19 minutes to go. Jol refutes suggestions Keane has been lined up to leave the club and added: "Maybe Robbie Keane was angry but it's not a problem for us, it's his problem."

Bruce said managing director Karren Brady has all but agreed a deal with Arsenal for Pennant, but joked that he had not had the opportunity to talk much to the player about his future over the past four weeks.

He also praised goalkeeper Maik Taylor's late saves from Mido and Freddie Kanouté for ultimately earning Birmingham the draw. He said: "All in all I'm delighted this game is out of the way and we could have nicked a win against a good Tottenham team had Clinton Morrison taken his chance in injury time."

Goals: Kelly (59) 0-1; Carter (66) 1-1.

Birmingham City (4-4-2): Maik Taylor; Melchiot, Cunningham, Upson, Clapham; Pennant (Gray, 56), Johnson, Carter, Lazaridis (Nafti, 71); Pandiani (Morrison, 67), Heskey. Subs not used: Vaesen (gk), Blake.

Tottenham Hotspur (4-4-2): Robinson; Pamarot (Kelly, 13), King, Naybet (Mido, 71), Edman; Reid, Carrick, Brown, Ziegler (Davis, 38); Kanouté, Defoe. Subs not used: Cerny (gk), Keane.

Referee: H Webb (South Yorkshire).

Booked: Tottenham Brown.

Man of the match: Maik Taylor.

Attendance: 29,304.