Wednesday 14 September 2016 09:17, UK
Birmingham City manager Gary Rowett praised the resilience of his team on their Sky Bet Championship travels after a 0-0 draw at Reading stretched their unbeaten away run to four matches.
"We're resolute, we're a tough team and a hard team to play against," said Rowett, whose side are fifth in the table.
"I'm trying to improve our shots on goal, our goalscoring record and the quality of crosses into the box.
"We weren't quite there but again we showed that we can dig in, we can make blocks, we can make tackles and we can keep clean sheets.
"I'll sometimes take that away from home because it's the hallmark of a pretty resolute team.
"In this division, you've got to work incredibly hard to get any point. And we've been pretty consistent mostly.
"If we'd used the ball a bit better when we had our opportunities, then we'd have created more chances.
"But we couldn't quite do that. We put a lot of energy into our games and we just couldn't replicate that this time."
Unusually, both sides had to make changes to their original line-ups shortly before kick-off due to injuries suffered in the warm-ups.
Reading had to replace midfielder Joe van den Berg, who sustained a hamstring strain, with George Evans.
Birmingham brought in reserve goalkeeper Adam Legzdins for Tomasz Kuszczak, who stood down with a thigh problem.
Clear chances were few and far between throughout, with defences mostly on top. Reading dominated possession - 71 per cent to 29 - but fashioned only a series of half-chances.
Legzdins, though, did make a fine save to keep out a 25-yard drive from Danny Williams in the first half. Lukas Jutkiewicz led the Birmingham frontline but faced a lone battle and was offered little support.
Reading stretched their unbeaten run in league and cup to five matches but boss Jaap Stam said: "We wanted to have a win. We always go for the win at home or away.
"It wasn't easy because you play against a top side who are dropping deep to prevent us the space to pass the ball through to play.
"If you play against a team who is playing that, you need to be very consistent in what you're doing. You need to play at a very high pace.
"Sometimes in the first half, we didn't do that. We were impatient. Because we wanted to go forward, sometimes you take a lot of risks and you pass the ball too quick.
"Then you lose it, they get the counter-attack and then you have to be aware of their quality players up front.
"It's not easy, though, when you play teams who like to play this way.
"We had a lot of possession and we should have created more chances. But at least we got a clean sheet and a point."
