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If you give striker Patrick Bamford one chance then your team will be made to pay for it.

That was the view of Birmingham boss Gary Rowett, who saw his side cling on to a 1-1 draw with table-topping Boro at St Andrew's last night.

The Blues, now winless in seven matches, had looked comfortable at half-time with Paul Caddis' penalty separating the sides, after Boro were reduced to 10 men when goalkeeper Dimi Konstantopoulos was sent off.

But Birmingham struggled to make their advantage pay with Boro drawing level through Bamford's 12th goal of the season - and Aitor Karanka's side were unlucky not to claim all three points.

Rowett admitted he was disappointed with his side's second half display and rued giving Chelsea loanee Bamford the one chance he needed to inflict maximum damage.

"I spoke to the players at half-time and said we’ve got to be brave and confident in the second-half and move the ball from side to side," Rowett told the club's website .

"(We needed to) make Middlesbrough work very hard across the pitch and see if we can go and create little two v ones down the side and open them up that way.

"But I just felt that we were a little bit edgy on the ball in the second-half and we didn’t play with enough bravery in possession.

"Even down to 10 men, with the players that Middlesbrough have got, they can still cause you problems because they’ve got some very good technical players one v one, and we left ourselves little bit open trying to get another goal.

"I think they only had one shot on target and it fell to Bamford and as we know he only needs one chance because he’s a very good player.

"It came from us not clearing our lines and not making good decisions defensively.”

The point was enough to send Boro back to the top of the Championship , moving one point adrift of rivals Derby and Bournemouth at the summit.

And that gap could be extended to four points if Boro can beat Leeds United in Saturday's 12.15pm kick-off.

"We are top of the table and we now have to defend our position there," Karanka said.

“I have told the players I am proud of them and we deserve to be there but we have achieved nothing yet."

Tomas Mejias is likely to be given the nod in goal , with Konstantopoulos now set to serve a suspension.

That means it's an opportunity to make amends for Mejias, who made a late mistake at Elland Road in the reverse fixture back in August to allow Billy Sharp to net a last-gasp winner.