Birmingham City held West Ham to a 1-1 draw in their Premiership match on Saturday to secure a vital point that lifts the club out of the relegation zone.

West Ham started the game strongly and took a deserved lead in the 7th minute when Freddie Ljungberg latched on to Carlton Cole's flick on to smash the ball past Maik Taylor from close range. The Hammers continued to dominate possession and should have had extended the lead but Lee Bowyer and Cole failed to hit the target.

Birmingham made them pay for the missed chances by equalizing in the 15th minute when James McFadden was fouled inside the area by Lucas Neill and the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. The 24-year old calmly stepped forward to score his first goal for his new club.

West Ham pressed forward in search of the lead with Bowyer and Matthew Etherington going close only to be denied by a brilliant Taylor. At the other end Birmingham had a great chance to take the lead when McFadden found Forssell with a perfect cross but the striker only managed to head it straight to Robert Green.

The hosts tried to step up the pressure in the second half and while they did dominate the possession, the only real chance of the half fell to Matthew Upson whose header was saved easily by Taylor. West Ham's hopes of collecting three points from the clash received a blow in the 88th minute when Lee Bowyer was harshly shown a red card for fouling Damien Johnson.