Championship round-up: Stoke and Birmingham on brink of safety after hard-fought draws 

Stoke manager Michael O’Neill refused to get carried away by the point which almost guarantees the Potters’ place in the Sky Bet Championship next season.

A 1-1 draw at Bristol City – in which Danny Batth’s second-half header cancelled out Filip Benkovic’s stunning strike – eased Stoke five points clear of the bottom three with two games remaining.

‘It goes a long way (to safety) but it does not make it mathematically certain,’ said O’Neill, who took over a side bottom of the table when he was appointed in early-November.

Stoke eased five points clear of the bottom three after a 1-1 draw at Bristol City on Wednesday

‘We are not getting carried away but it was the least we deserved.

‘We won’t be celebrating (staying up). We will be relieved and make sure that it does not happen again for a club of this size.

‘We have had a difficult season in the Championship, so going forward we have to make sure it is not repeated again next season.’

Stoke shaded the first half and were significantly the superior side after the break.

Danny Batth’s second-half header cancelled out Filip Benkovic’s stunning strike

Sam Vokes blazed over, Nick Powell struck a post and Batth had a header pushed on to the crossbar by Robins goalkeeper Dan Bentley after his 64th-minute goal had restored parity.

Lukas Jutkiewicz denied Charlton manager Lee Bowyer a winning return to St Andrew’s as Birmingham grabbed a late equaliser to earn a 1-1 draw.

Jutkiewicz’s leveller in the third minute of time added on denied relegation-threatened Charlton, who looked set to win courtesy of Macauley Bonne’s 58th-minute goal.

Bowyer remains the bookies’ favourite to become Blues’ next manager and he was four minutes of time added on from a winning first trip back to the club where he made 94 appearances from 2009-11 and won the League Cup in 2011.

Birmingham City’s Lukas Jutkiewicz scored a late equaliser to earn a draw against Charlton

Bonne’s 10th of the season ended the Addicks’ three-match losing run.

Blues have gone 12 games without a win but at least they avoided a fifth consecutive loss after the premature exit of head coach Pep Clotet a week ago.

They have taken just seven points out of the last 36 available.

But they only had themselves to blame after Scott Hogan missed a 34th-minute penalty and blazed over the rebound, while they wasted two early chances.