They say that the sign of a good team is that they can play badly and win, that wasn't quite the case here, but we came through a game riddled with individual errors and got a point, so not great but you can't win every game.

Saints stretched their unbeaten run to 3 games in the Championship and in doing so, although they only moved up to 17th place, their true position without the 4 points deduction would now be 3rd.

That being the case from a points total we have had a satisfactory start to the season, but this was not a good performance overall from Saints, the stats looked good, but didn't show the individual errors from our team that punctuated the game.

Biggest culprits were ironically the goal scorer Keven Schlotterbeck who got away with a couple that should have seen a goal scored.

He perhaps had an excuse in that this was only his 2nd game in what has been a hectic 5 day period that has seen him leave Augsburg and move to England, but Daniel Peretz had no such leeway, he came and flapped at a couple of crosses and his kicking was appalling, twice he sent a clearance straight to an opponent and also skewed a couple out for throw ins.

At the moment he is going through a bad patch, hopefully he will play his way through it and like this game will not see an error lead to a goal.

If not then Tonda Eckert has a difficult decision to make.

It was a scrappy end to end game, that saw chances squandered at both ends, Saints could easily have been a goal, even two down by the time that Keven Schlotterbeck headed home in first half injury time to give Saints the lead.

But if we thought that would settle the game and see us take command, then we were wrong, after the break the home side came at us like a train and within 10 minutes were back on level terms, it's hard to point a finger at an individual, but in simple terms we went to sleep at the back and gave the scorer a free header.

There is a lot for Tonda to ponder from this game, he will be pleased that his team got down in the mud and scrapped when they had to, but as mentioned he will not be happy with the individual performances.

For long periods we couldn't seem to keep the ball, we struggled to get it down and play and we struggled to pass it, Cyle Larin never really got going and the few chances he had he squandered.

Likewise Leo Scienza was awful and I was surprised that he stayed on the pitch and Tom Fellows was taken off.

In the midfield we rarely got going and it was only when James Ward Prowse came into the fray on the hour mark that we started to get on top in that department.

We struggled to cope with Birmingham's high tempo game pressing game and it showed.

But negatives out of the way, as I said at the start, we still got a point and we move forward.

However on the evidence of this game we are going to miss Taylor Harwood-Bellis big time, the central defensive pairing did not click in this game and I think our failure to land an experienced central defender in this window could cost us dearly.

Jo Tessem in his post match comments said as much, he said that promotion in the Championship is won by a core of experienced players with the youngsters coming in when necessary.

This is not going to be the case, if Nathan Wood & Keven Schlotterbeck don't form a solid partnership then what do we have to replace them, Jack Stephens & new signing Zach Abbott a 20 year old with 3 League games for Nottingham Forest to his name.

Perhaps he will be another Tino Livramento or Romeo Lavia, but if that is the case then why did Forest let him go?

But we march on, as I said without that 4 point deduction we would be 3rd and hovering behind the top two, that shows that we have had a good start to the season, but we do have that four point deduction and we have to overcome it.

However there was a good ending to the evening, the news that Portsmouth had lost at home to Derby and that even after giving them a four point start, we are now above them albeit on goal difference.

All Photos Via Reuters