Birmingham and Sheffield United played out an entertaining 1-1 draw at St Andrew's that did little for either sides' dwindling play-off ambitions.

Wrexham's win over Swansea on Friday night left both teams needing to take three points to keep pace.

However, despite a hatful of chances at either end - and the fact Chris Wilder's side played the vast majority of the game with 10 men after Femi Seriki was sent off - ultimately both lost more ground on the top six.

An eventful first half ended level, with both teams creating numerous openings.

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Chris Davies' Blues hit the woodwork twice in the opening nine minutes, first when Jay Stansfield dummied Tomoki Iwata's pass from the right and freed up Ibrahim Osman, whose eight-yard drive was deflected onto a post.

Two minutes later Ethan Laird laid the ball off to Marvin Ducksch on the left-hand corner of the area and the forward smacked a curling effort off Adam Davies' crossbar.

The Blades were reduced to 10 men after 23 minutes when Seriki brought Osman down just outside the box and was adjudged to have been the last defender.

Ducksch took the resulting free-kick and lifted the ball over the wall and beyond Davies' dive for his 10th Championship goal.

The visitors should have levelled in the 29th minute when Jack Robinson handled what he thought was a dead ball in his own area and gifted a penalty to his former club.

Sydie Peck's spot-kick was far too close to goalkeeper James Beadle who saved.

Patrick Bamford should have equalised three minutes before the break when Japhet Tanganga headed a free-kick into his path but his contact was straight at the Birmingham keeper.

However, he made no mistake three minutes into stoppage time when he latched onto Harrison Burrows' pass over the top, took the ball around Beadle and rolled it into the net.

The game remained open in the second half but chances were less plentiful, indeed it was not until the hour when Birmingham hit the goal-frame for a third time.

Laird drew a foul out of Ki-Jana Hoever down the left, which Paik Seung-ho arrowed to the near post and Ducksch's flicked header rebounded off the crossbar.

The former Germany international made it a hat-trick of woodwork strikes with 18 minutes to go after Carlos Vicente won a free-kick from Burrows. Up stepped Ducksch and his 25-yard curler struck the bar again.

The managers

Birmingham's Chris Davies:

"A definite red card, he's through on goal, he's the quickest player on the pitch, he's taking his touch forward and he's taken down.

"A real turning point is the goal just before half-time, it gives them something to hang onto, a goal out of nothing. Really sloppy from our point of view.

"Second half my feeling is that we were huffing and puffing and the players gave absolutely everything."

Sheffield United's Chris Wilder:

"I can't believe for the life of me they can just go for making that decision because it's so grey and it's not even grey, it's more towards us.

"Tyler Bindon's there on the cover, the pace on the ball goes through to Adam Davies and it goes to his (Osman's) left-hand side, the boy's never getting there.

"They go over and talk to the linesman and they come to a decision. The referee's not clear on it, the linesman's clear on it and then the double whammy of obviously an unbelievable free-kick going in the top corner."

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