Birmingham manager Alex McLeish praised the character of defender Martin Taylor after he scored a late equaliser to atone for his defensive blunder minutes earlier.

Blues had hardly been troubled before Taylor inexplicably missed his attempted clearing header eight minutes from time, giving Barnsley striker Michael Mifsud the simple chance of opening the scoring.

The 29-year-old defender, however, needed just three minutes to spare his blushes – and those of his promotion-chasing team – when he was on hand to turn in his first goal of the season after Heinz Muller could only parry Sebastian Larsson’s free-kick.

“Martin held his hands up after the game,” McLeish said. “He’s played well in the last few games. You could see he was distraught but as soon as we got the free-kick he was up and on the end of it.

“You look for a bit of character in a player and that was a good response from Martin. It was a great relief for him, but for all of us as well.

“It saved them from getting strangled in the end.” Taylor’s goal was all the more important after Birmingham’s automatic promotion rivals all failed to win.

Blues remain three points behind leaders Wolves, who drew with Ipswich, while third-placed Reading were held by Charlton.

McLeish has not seen his side win away since Boxing Day but, with the other teams faltering around them, Birmingham still find themselves second in the Coca-Cola Championship table.

“It’s quite an incredible league,” McLeish said. “We are still in their fighting. It was good spirit from the players but I’d like to see a bit more quality.”

Barnsley boss Simon Davey admitted the draw felt like a defeat after they had led so late on. The Reds are just a point above the drop zone and, having collected just eight points from their past nine games, Davey knows they can ill-afford to throw away points.

“When you are winning with five or six minutes to go we are disappointed we didn’t come away with he points,” he said.

“It feels as if it is a defeat. We are also disappointed to give away a free-kick like we did and it should never have got through to Heinz. I’ll have to look at the video later and see who the culprits are.”

Davey felt his side should have had a penalty eight minutes after the break when Jamal Campbell-Ryce appeared to be pulled back by Larsson.

“Jamal’s got pulled down but these decisions go either way,” said Davey.