By at the Liberty Stadium

RUSSELL MARTIN claimed his Swansea players did not deserve to be booed off after they held on for a point against a dominant Birmingham side.

Juninho Bacuna, Talith Chong and Maxime Colin were all guilty of missing gilt-edged chances for the Blues, while Swansea created very little after a bright opening 15 minutes.

“It never got going, never sparked, and the atmosphere reflected that,” admitted Swans boss Martin.

“I’m disappointed for the players that there were boos but I understand it. I didn’t enjoy the game.

“I was disappointed. But we managed to get a point against a team who are difficult to play against and kept a clean sheet. There was no lack of effort.”

Martin blamed a gruelling schedule after long trips to Blackpool and Peterborough in the past week. He added: “We had 21 hours on the bus this week, we got back at 3am on Thursday.

“We had a long trip to Blackpool before that and they were two difficult pitches as well. And Birmingham played a day before us as well in midweek. These are not excuses, they’re facts.”

Birmingham boss Lee Bowyer was pleased with an improved performance after a poor showing in the 2-0 home defeat to Middlesbrough last Tuesday.

And he insisted: “It’s clear to see that we should have won the game.

“I don’t know how many chances we missed. We missed three from about two yards out. And they weren’t half chances, they were clear-cut chances that it was harder to miss than score.

“Tuesday was a bad day at the office, but we got the reaction. The only thing we didn’t get was the three points.”

SWANSEA CITY: Fisher 6; Cabango 6, Naughton 7, Burns 6 (Latibeaudiere 45, 6); Christie 6, Ntcham 7, Grimes 6, Wolf 5 (Joseph 80); Piroe 6, Smith 6 (Ogbeta 63, 5), Obafemi 6.

Subs not used: Hamer, Fulton, Congreve

BIRMINGHAM CITY: Etheridge 6; Colin 6, Roberts 6, Gordon 6, Graham 6; Gardner, 5 Bacuna 7 (Richards 75, 6), Sunjic 7, Hernandez 8; Chong 7, Horgan 6.

Subs not used: Jeacock, Oakley, Bela, James, Woods, Jutkiewicz

MAN OF THE MATCH: Onel Hernandez. Created plenty of opportunities and caused Swansea problems with his pace and trickery.

REFEREE: Jeremy Simpson 7.