Birmingham City slipped to within two points of the relegation zone as they drew 1-1 at home to Everton while Bolton and Fulham both won.

A close-range header from Joleon Lescott looked like it would give Everton a win they hardly deserved, but Mauro Zarate levelled with a stunning free-kick on 83 minutes.

Despite a good performance and an acceptable result, Birmingham were dragged back into a dogfight by results elsewhere and have four games to save their top-flight status, including a derby against Aston Villa and a 'six-pointer' against Fulham.

Everton will hardly be any happier with the result, as they now trail neighbours Liverpool by two points having played a game more in the race for fourth place.

Although they rarely sparkled, Birmingham had the better chances and will feel they should have won.

Cameron Jerome headed against the post in the first half, before visiting goalkeeper Tim Howard pulled off a spectacular double save from Radhi Jaidi and James McFadden.

Both sides lined up with a positive 4-4-2 formation, with home boss Alex McLeish preferring Mikael Forssell and McFadden to the highly-rated Zarate up front.

McLeish and his countryman David Moyes might have set their teams up to attack but they seemed reluctant to oblige in a drab first half.

An injury to Sebastian Larsson midway through the opening period forced McLeish to introduce another striker - Cameron Jerome - from the bench, albeit deployed wide in midfield.

Jerome produced the standout moment of the first half, as he rose above Leighton Baines to meet a cross and was unlucky to see his downward header come back off the post.

A fourth Birmingham forward came on at the break, as Garry O'Connor replaced the struggling Forssell, but the best chance fell to a defender, Liam Ridgewell.

A Gary McSheffrey corner missed the first man and fell to the Blues skipper, who somehow volleyed over from just a couple of yards.

McFadden tested Howard with a free-kick before the American truly excelled himself.

Jaidi's spectacular volley was dropping into the left corner when Howard somehow sprung to his right to tip the ball away. Seconds later he produced a magnificent reflex stop to repel a close-range McFadden shot.

McFadden was soon replaced by a fifth striker, Zarate, but the move appeared to backfire as Everton took the lead.

Andy Johnson seized on the second ball after a corner was half-cleared and clipped it into the six-yard box. Yakubu Ayegbeni headed goalwards and Lescott diverted it past Maik Taylor with a glancing header from a yard out.

It was cruel on Birmingham, and Zarate ensured they would take at least a point from the game. He stepped up to a free-kick 20 yards from goal and curled it brilliantly into the top-left corner with even the excellent Howard rooted to the spot.

Alex Chick / Eurosport