When his playing days are over, Lee Carsley may not rank alongside the great names of Everton's past who were paraded at half time. But Goodison fans are unlikely to forget in a hurry the dramatic impact the midfielder made in stoppage time when most of them had settled for a frustrating 1-1 scoreline.
First Carsley collected an attempted clearance by Liam Ridgewell and from 20 yards powered his shot into the top corner. Maik Taylor, the Birmingham goalkeeper, got a hand to it but was beaten by its sheer power. Then Carsley's forcing, forward header released substitute James Vaughan, who went some way to putting a long spell out of action with a shoulder injury behind him by finishing in crisp fashion.
But it nearly did not happen. Manager David Moyes, celebrating a fourth successive victory in 10 days spread over three competitions, revealed: 'At half time I almost told him to stop shooting because he hadn't had much joy with his efforts. I'm glad I didn't.'
Carsley began to find his range with an impressive moment of improvisation when volleying sweetly a dropping ball onto the top of the net as Everton struggled to regain their early control.
'I hadn't settled for a point because I felt the ball was due to turn for us at some time,' said Moyes 'We certainly deserved it. A draw would have been unjust. We showed a great deal of character to get the result.'
His side had taken a 10th-minute lead through Nigerian striker Yakubu after Mikel Arteta and Steven Pienaar had created the opening and they were playing with such freedom and control in the early stages that a comfortable success looked to be on the cards.
Instead Birmingham dug in and regrouped for the second half when Steve Bruce introduced Garry O'Connor to provide more support for loan striker Cameron Jerome. They began to play with greater authority and cohesion and the reward was an equaliser by Olivier Kapo, who met Gary McSheffrey's corner with a header that brushed Phil Neville on its way in.
With Everton running out of ideas, the visitors seemed capable of going on to complete a sizeable transformation. 'To end up with nothing was cruel,' said manager Steve Bruce. 'If anyone looked like winning it was us.
'After being given a chasing for the first 20 minutes we had acquitted ourselves well. But we have to learn to kill the game off in these situations. It must be the sixth or seventh time in the North-West that this sort of thing has happened to us.'
Although the Birmingham midfielder Wilson Palacios travelled with the squad, Bruce said there was no question of him playing after the kidnapping by armed men of his 15-year-old brother Edwin Rene, in Honduras.
'He's been spending hours on the phone trying to catch up with things and getting little sleep,' said the manager. 'We just hope something is resolved over the weekend. He's been very important to us in recent weeks.'
Man of the match Lee Carsley
It was tempting to name one of the former Everton players who stirred memories for supporters when paraded at half-time. Then Carsley struck a fine goal to regain the lead for his side and set up a third for James Vaughan. So he just had to take the honours.