Sky Blues and Brum share spoils

Gary McSheffrey and Marlon King both scored against their former clubs as Coventry and Birmingham shared a 1-1 draw at the Ricoh Arena.

The draw did little for the respective Championship survival and promotion hopes of Coventry and Birmingham. For a Midlands derby, the first half was a tame and forgettable affair but the game sprang into life after half-time. The goals came within two minutes of one another midway through the second half. McSheffrey, who had four years at Birmingham before rejoining Coventry in the summer of 2010, had the hosts dreaming of climbing out of the relegation zone with a sixth Championship victory in their last eight home matches when he headed the Sky Blues in front after 70 minutes. But the lead lasted just two minutes before King, Coventry's top scorer last season, capitalised on some slack defending to equalise from close range. Birmingham finished the game with 10 men after substitute Jordon Mutch was shown a straight red card for allegedly elbowing Alex Nimely. Andy Thorn's side stay in the bottom three while Birmingham's hopes of mounting a late automatic promotion challenge are looking increasingly slim after only one win in their last five league games. The only noteworthy action of the first half came when the visitors thought they should have had a penalty when Andros Townsend went down under a challenge from Jordan Clarke but referee Neil Swarbrick waved away the appeals. Guirane N'Daw and Chris Burke worked Coventry goalkeeper Joe Murphy before the hour mark before Peter Ramage and Keith Fahey also threatened for the Blues. But it was Coventry who went ahead. Carl Baker did brilliantly down the right-hand side and his pin-point cross was headed back across goal by McSheffrey from 12 yards out for his seventh goal of the season. However, the lead was short-lived. The Sky Blues failed to deal with a long throw from Ramage and after substitute Nikola Zigic missed his header, King took advantage of Clarke's hesitancy to tuck the ball away from six yards out. Oliver Norwood almost immediately restored Coventry's lead but his curler from the edge of the box struck a post. King came close to scoring a winner with five minutes remaining but he got his header wrong and the ball drifted wide. Mutch was sent off in the final minute following an innocuous-looking challenge on Nimely.