David Moyes believes Everton missed a golden opportunity to strengthen their Europa League qualifying hopes after letting a two-goal lead slip against Birmingham City.

As the battle for a top-eight finish in the Premier League intensifies, the Toffees raced into a two-goal lead at St Andrew's only to concede twice in a 2-2 stalemate.

Victor Anichebe and Yakubu scored twice in the space of four minutes only for Birmingham to demonstrate their resilience with goals from Cameron Jerome and Craig Gardner.

When asked about his side's European chances, Moyes replied: "We've got a long way to go, I've always said we're playing catch-up because of the start that we had to the season so we will see where it goes.

"At the moment, today's result didn't help them, didn't help us, doesn't really close the gap on anybody above us and the games are running out.

"So we missed a big opportunity today at 2-0 up, we should have, I felt, been good enough to go on and win the game.

"But for an inspired goalkeeping performance (from Joe Hart) and an incredible sloppy goal for us I think we would have gone on to win it."