Goalkeeper Darren Ward was in outstanding form as Nottingham Forest denied Birmingham a fourth successive win at icy St Andrews.

The former Notts County stopper produced a series of outstanding saves as Forest forced the Blues to settle for a point.

Ward was beaten only once in the third minute of the game by a powerful Tommy Mooney shot but after that he kept his goal intact despite some fierce attacking play.

Mooney's early strike got the home side off to a dream start but Forest, so often their bogey side, battled hard and claimed a deserved draw with a smartly-taken equaliser from Stern John.

Forest responded positively to falling a goal behind and produced some good football despite the ice-bound pitch making the game a complete lottery.

The visitors went into the game on the back of seven successive wins at St Andrews and they obviously looked at home in the West Midlands.

Birmingham, lacking the services of influential central defender Darren Purse, took the lead when Mooney slotted home a left-footed shot after Darren Ward had pushed out a right-wing shot from Geoff Horsfield.

Forest initially struggled to adapt to the difficult conditions but then settled down and began to pose problems for Birmingham's makeshift defence.

City survived a scare in the 17th minute when Jim Brennan caught new boy Jeff Kenna on the wrong foot and put over a low cross which John side-footed narrowly wide.

The ever-dangerous John continued to trouble Birmingham's defence and in the 25th minute he grabbed a well-earned equaliser after winning a corner on the left.

He then got on the end of Nicky Summerbee's inswinging cross to head home from just inside the six-yard box.

Birmingham took some time to recover from the setback but just before the break went back onto the attack when Marcelo, Mooney, and Steve Vickers all wasted reasonable goal opportunities.

But it was Ward who took the honours with brilliant saves to deny Mooney, Michael Johnson and on-loan Kenna the chance to snatch the points.

Teams:

Birmingham: Bennett, Grainger (Michael Johnson 66), Kenna, Vickers, Burrows, McCarthy (Andrew Johnson 57), O'Connor, Hyde (Bak 84), Marcelo, Horsfield, Mooney.

Subs Not Used: Vaesen, Eaden.

Booked: Horsfield.

Goals: Mooney 4.

Nottm Forest: Ward, Vaughan, Brennan, Hjelde, Scimeca, Williams, Prutton, Summerbee, Jenas, John, Lester.

Subs Not Used: Johnson, Roche, Bopp, Thompson, Gray.

Booked: Vaughan, Jenas.

Goals: John 26.

Att: 19,770

Ref: D Pugh (Bebington).