Ten-man Derby County held Birmingham City to a draw in a feisty encounter at St Andrew’s in which both sides had a player sent off.
The visitors took the lead through Patrick Agyemang on 27 minutes but were forced to play more than half the match a man down after Joe Ward was dismissed just before the interval after picking up his second yellow card.
Jack Robinson equalised, and Birmingham also ended the match with 10 men after skipper Christoph Klarer was sent off in stoppage time for a high-footed challenge.
This was a controversial and hot-tempered match, with Klarer lucky to escape a second yellow card earlier in the second half before his karate-style challenge on Ebou Adams.
And Robinson’s equaliser looked suspiciously like a handball.
Birmingham, whose winless run extended to five matches with this draw, rattled the woodwork late on as they searched in vain for a winner.
Despite the frustration of an entirely avoidable red card, Derby will have finished the happier of the two sides, given they played almost all of the second half with a numerical disadvantage.
And while Ward’s second bookable offence, for an unnecessary foul on Patrick Roberts, which followed a first for kicking the ball away at a Birmingham free-kick, undoubtedly cost his side, there will be some satisfaction that they were able to escape with a point.
Birmingham set the tone early on for what was a decent display going forward, with Demarai Gray hitting the woodwork in the opening five minutes.
Yet it was the visitors who took the lead just before the half-hour mark with a brutally efficient counter-attack, turning a handball appeal in their own box to a goal at the other end.
Rhian Brewster raced on to a long ball to the right wing and his cross was nodded home by Agyemang.
Six minutes before the break, the whole complexion of the match changed when Ward saw red for clipping Roberts’ heels needlessly as he bore down on the penalty area with covering defenders arriving on the scene.
Ward’s dismissal forced boss John Eustace into a change of personnel for a second half of firefighting, with two forwards – Brewster and Ben Brereton Diaz – making way for Curtis Nelson and Adams.
Birmingham’s pressure finally brought a breakthrough when Marc Leonard’s free-kick from the right was turned in by Robinson, who clearly used an arm as he bundled the ball home – but it was missed by the officials.
Derby’s mood was not improved five minutes later, when Klarer escaped a second yellow card after wrestling Agyemang to the floor – a decision which led to Eustace himself being cautioned for arguing his case on the touchline.
Robinson hit the bar with a header as Birmingham chased a winner and there was still time for Klarer to see red in the final stages.