David Moyes was left to rue a number of missed chances as Everton were held to a 1-1 draw at home to Birmingham.
Diniyar Bilyaletdinov's sixth-minute strike was all the hosts had to show for their early dominance, although Louis Saha had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside minutes after the Russia international had opened the scoring.
And they were caught cold when Sebastian Larsson equalised with Birmingham's first shot of the match midway through the first half.
It was much the same after the interval and even when Moyes sent on Ayegbeni Yakubu and switched to 4-4-2 Everton could not make the breakthrough.
However, Moyes was disappointed Saha's effort was disallowed and also that the officials failed to spot an incident when Stephen Carr appeared to handle the ball when he challenged Saha.
"It's a goal. And then Stephen Carr punches it off his head - I've seen that as well," said the Everton manager.
"I'm frustrated because we had opportunities in a game which I feel we were in control of and should have won.
"I didn't think Saha's disallowed goal would be the turning point at the time because I thought we were dominating the game and playing so well we would go on a score more goals.
"I thought our play was fine but I thought in the final third we were wasteful in our final pass and finish."
Moyes also credited Birmingham with a disciplined defensive display.
"I thought they were really resilient. They are on a good run and they went up the pitch once and got a goal," he added.
"They earned that because they worked really hard to stay in the game and we have not been quite good enough to break them down today."
Birmingham boss Alex McLeish saw his side's five-match winning stretch come to an end but they remain unbeaten in nine Barclays Premier League games.
"It is a good end to the run up to Christmas," he said.
"We were hoping we would remain intact on this unbeaten run up to Christmas Day.
"To come to Goodison, not play that great and get a point I suppose is a fantastic bonus."
McLeish accepted his side had got lucky with some of the officials' decisions.
"I know Louis Saha was not offside. We have had some like that go against us but it shows you, in a split-second decision, how difficult it is for the linesman," he said.
On Carr's possible handball McLeish added: "Looking from the dug-out I thought someone threw their arm up and people are telling me that now but no-one seemed to bat an eyelid.
"It's one of those strange ones. What was the decision given, a goal-kick?"
