Sheffield United and Birmingham City began the new Championship campaign with a 0-0 draw at Bramall Lane on Saturday.
It was a really poor game of football in truth, with both sides struggling to carve out any real scoring opportunities.
Lineups
Blades: Cooper, McCallum (Burrows 77), Tanganga, Rothwell (Arblaster 67), Cannon (Campbell 60), O’Hare, Donovan (Chong 60), McGuinness, Seriki, Peck, Bamford (Oné 77).
Unused: Davies, Doherty, Baptiste, Riedewald.
Birmingham: Beadle, Klarer, Neumann, Vicente (Laird 88), Seung-ho (Bird 80), Priske (Vazquez 88), Solís, Cochrane, Iwata, Osayi-Samuel, Stansfield (Gray 74).
Unused: Allsop, Roberts, Fry, Lund, Fujimoto.
First Half
Chris Wilder’s side made a lively start and looked to put the visitors under pressure, with a succession of early corners testing the Birmingham defence. However, Blues stood firm and prevented United from creating any clear openings.
The opening stages quickly developed into a fiercely contested affair, with neither side willing to give an inch. Chances were difficult to come by, although Patrick Bamford came closest for the hosts midway through the first half when he attempted an acrobatic finish that flew into the side netting.
Birmingham were able to put a number of deliveries into the Sheffield United penalty area, but Michael Cooper was rarely troubled and looked assured whenever called upon.
The visitors remained dangerous on the break and from set pieces. Carlos Vicente saw a right-footed effort blocked, before Paik Seung-Ho narrowly missed the target with a glancing header following an excellent delivery from Alex Cochrane.
Birmingham began to grow into the contest as half-time approached, with Bright Osayi-Samuel curling an effort wide after the visitors had enjoyed their strongest spell of the opening 45 minutes.
Second Half
Blues continued that momentum after the restart and immediately looked the more threatening side. Vicente had another effort deflected behind before being played through on goal moments later, only for the winger to opt to pass rather than take the shot himself.
Stansfield then tested Cooper twice in quick succession as Birmingham continued to look for a breakthrough, with United struggling to find the same attacking rhythm they had shown during pre-season.
The Blades finally produced their clearest opening of the match with 15 minutes remaining. Callum O’Hare found Bamford with a well-weighted through ball, sending the striker into a promising position inside the Birmingham box. The angle was against him, though, and his right-footed attempt was comfortably dealt with by Blues goalkeeper James Beadle.
That proved to be the final meaningful opportunity of the afternoon, with neither side able to find the decisive goal.