Then there was the disgusting challenge by Liam Ridgwell on James McCarthy in the corner that also went unpunished.

Are we having another season where we are playing against the FA as well as the opposition side?

Here is the reaction of the two managers.

Roberto Martinez

The penalty decision and the challenge by Liam Ridgewell on James McCarthy are there for everyone to see. Overall, though, we must focus on our own performances. In the first half, we worked extremely hard but we just weren't good enough and we weren't ourselves.

We played with our hearts rather than our heads, but our link-up play and our threat up front was very little. In the second half, we got the right reaction and we had a proper desire and a determination about us.

We forced many corners and we created one golden chance, and made Birmingham put a number of bodies behind the ball. The second-half performance was the way we have to keep performing, and we also have to hope that we will start to get some decisions going our way.

It is a tough one to take, because I thought the first half was very even and there was not much between the two sides. We received a big blow at a key moment right on half-time, but I think everyone could see we were the better side in the second half.

To come away with nothing reflects the way it is going or us at the moment. But now is the time to get together as a football club - the players, the staff, the directors and the fans - and pickup that extra five per cent and work harder to turn it around.

When you are playing away from home and not playing as well as you can, you don't want to get hurt. You want to get in at half-time with a clean sheet and be able to regroup.

I don't think Birmingham did enough to have opened up a one-goal lead at half-time. The penalty was not a penalty and that is there for everyone to see. There was not enough contact to give a penalty and, after that, it's an uphill battle.

But I was very pleased with the reaction, and the understanding of what was needed in the second half. We finished the game strongly and if you were a neutral I don't think you could have argued that a draw was the fairest result because there was nothing in it first half, and we were the better side in the second.

We need to make sure that we carry on with our level of performance and making sure we go into games being ourselves and not playing with our hearts instead of our heads.

If you do that, the job becomes a lot harder. But the situation remains the same, and everything is still in our hands. We have allowed ourselves to drop into a difficult position in the table but it is time now to work hard and get the results that our performances deserve.

It is down to everyone to pull together and ensure we are a stronger football club for the period. We have done it before and we'll do it again.

Alex McLeish

It is an outstanding achievement by the players and with a squad that cost us around about £10 million in the summer to assemble. With the magnitude of the job and the fact it is the Premier League it's without a doubt collectively the best squad I've worked with.

These (40 points) are amazing figures and it's even more amazing that we're in eighth position. We haven't scored a lot of goals, but we've got a really strong backbone in the team and I've got to compliment the strikers despite the lack of goals with their teamwork.

We've played a lot better than we did today. It was a little bit fraught and anxious in the second half but whereas we had a lead to hang onto Wigan had to throw caution to the wind.

But we held firm again with a strong back five and Joe Hart saved us from dropping two points with a point blank save from Rodallega.

The table

Next game

Next up for the Latics is the visit of Liverpool to the DW Stadium on Monday 8th March.

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