Liverpool had Spanish international goalkeeper Pepe Reina to thank for their share of the spoils in a tight encounter with Birmingham at St. Andrews.

Reina made two world-class saves in the first half as part of a near-perfect all-round display.

The first came on 22 minutes, the game’s first chance, when he somehow got his right hand to Cameron Jerome’s powerful downward header from Lee Bowyer’s left-wing cross.

And he made an equally fine stop from Craig Gardner’s 37^th minute header, after the midfield man was picked out by Steven Carr’s excellent right-wing cross.

It said everything about Liverpool’s lack of creativity that Reina’s opposite number, Ben Foster, had an untroubled first half and was only brought into serious action by Steven Gerrard’s opportunistic volley a minute after the interval.

The second half was more open than the first. But Birmingham continued to have the more frequent and better chances.

The best fell to an unmarked Scott Dann in the 57^th minute, when his downward header from Sebastian Larsson’s free-kick bounced over the crossbar from eight yards.

For Liverpool, an out-of-sorts Fernando Torres had one dangerous run past two defenders on 82 minutes but Foster comfortably saved his weakly-struck shot.