Soccer: Given saves the day

The rich men of Abu Dhabi who have funded Manchester City's assault on the elite of English soccer preferred to attend the Formula One grand prix in their home country yesterday to an afternoon watching their new investment toil in the Midlands. For that alone, Mark Hughes could be grateful: this was not the work of a £200 million ($277 million) team.

When Sheikh Mansour checks the Premier League table he will see his club in fourth place positioned up among the royalty of English soccer - but no one could argue that City are surging up the division. Rather, they have benefited from indifferent performances of some of those above them and with four consecutive draws they might be doing so much better.

If Hughes wanted a crumb of comfort on this, his 46th birthday, then he would find it in Shay Given who was the decisive player for the away side. It was Given who saved James McFadden's penalty in the 56th minute, the pick of many important stops he made, and there is little doubt that the Irish goalkeeper, who cost £8 million in January, is the best value-for-money signing that City have made since the Abu Dhabi takeover.

Given had already stopped two efforts from Christian Benitez in the first half when he dived to his left to push away McFadden's penalty.

"Shay is an outstanding goalkeeper and he has been his whole career," Hughes said.

"He has produced this throughout his career and we are very pleased to have him. At key moments in the match he allowed us to stay in it and ultimately take something from the game."

As for the rest of City's star cast, they will have to do better if they have pretensions of staying among the Champions League places come May. The list of teams with whom they have drawn their last four games - West Ham, Aston Villa, Wigan and Fulham - do not constitute the most daunting opposition. Without Emmanuel Adebayor, whose back injury kept him out, City looked flat and predictable in attack.

There was one complaint from Hughes that referee Mike Dean had failed to award Carlos Tevez a penalty when he tumbled over Sebastian Larsson's leg in the 85th minute, but it was debatable to say the least.

"We have looked at the tape and Carlos goes over the boy's leg in the box," Hughes said.

"It is a penalty and Mike Dean thinks it's a drop ball. That maybe needs clarifying."

If Hughes' team were limited, that had much to do with the tenacity of Alex McLeish's side, who seem to have learned that it will be grim determination that keeps them in the division. A red card in injury-time for Barry Ferguson, earned for a second yellow card for a petulant handball, means that Birmingham will be without the Scot at Anfield next week.

"My players came into the dressing room a little bit disappointed to not get three points," McLeish said. "I thought it was a very powerful performance from the players.

"They gave everything they had, it was just the final touch that let us down. With the win over Sunderland we have two games of great quality."

In the directors' box, Birmingham's new owner Carson Yeung grimaced and despaired as his team tried and failed to beat Given. There were some impressive performances in his side, not least from Larsson and the two central defenders, Roger Johnson and Scott Dann, who dominated Roque Santa Cruz. Johnson took a ball in the windpipe at the end of the game but still picked himself up and came back on to see out the closing stages.

City have come a long way since the days when their idea of a big signing was a past-his-best Steve McManaman.

Yet they never really achieved any fluency yesterday and, despite Hughes' protestation that three of Manchester City's last four draws have come away from home, something is missing.

Hughes claimed that his side's "flying start" to the season had brought with it some unreasonable expectation, although it would be fair to say that the £200 million plays its part in that too.

"People expect us to win every game and that is not going to happen," Hughes said. "This was about knuckling down and getting something out of the game. We know we didn't play as we are capable. It is a good lesson and we will be better in similar games."

Hughes' team play Burnley at home on Saturday when there really will be no excuse for anything less than three points.

The City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak is expected to speak publicly about the club the week after that game and the last thing Hughes needs is to give him reason to discuss his manager and his future.

- INDEPENDENT