Birmingham City vs Hull City. Sky Bet Championship.
St. Andrew's StadiumAttendance17,231.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Birmingham and Hull City at St Andrew's as Shota Arveladze's Tigers missed the better chances in a goalless draw on Saturday afternoon.
Saturday 12 March 2022 18:53, UK
Hull only had themselves to blame for failing to put lacklustre Birmingham to the sword in a 0-0 draw at St Andrew's.
Hull forced Birmingham goalkeeper Neil Etheridge into two important saves from Keane Lewis-Potter and Jacob Greaves, while Tom Eaves missed a sitter.
Birmingham's only threats were lobs from Juninho Bacuna and Tahith Chong at either end of the second half, but both were comfortably held by Matt Ingram.
The visitors looked the more dangerous team for the first half hour and could have been ahead after 20 seconds.
Lewis-Potter got in behind Birmingham's defence racing down the left to be presented with a one-on-one with Etheridge.
But the forward took an extra touch, driving himself even wider, and eventually his angled shot was blocked by the left leg of Etheridge.
Hull threatened again when Lewis-Potter teed up Greg Docherty 20 yards out but the midfielder's low drive was deflected inches wide off Marc Roberts.
The visitors briefly appealed for a penalty when Eaves - making his 100th appearance for the Tigers - went down in a tussle with Roberts from George Honeyman's cross, but referee Michael Salisbury waved play on.
Birmingham took a while to come into the game as an attacking force.
When they did, captain Gary Gardner looped a header comfortably over the bar from Roberts' cross after climbing above Hull skipper Richard Smallwood.
Blues went closest to breaking the deadlock in the 39th minute.
Gardner flicked on Jordan Graham's corner and Lyle Taylor diverted the ball goalwards only for goalkeeper Ingram to flip the ball away and Lewis-Potter hacked off the line.
Blues attempted to take a spectacular lead within 20 seconds of the restart, but Bacuna's long-range lob was held by Ingram.
But Hull were again not ruthless enough in front of goal as another chance went begging.
Eaves opted to take a touch in front of goal rather than shoot from point-blank range and his shot was deflected the side-netting after Honeyman's pull back.
The visitors remained on top and Blues had Etheridge to thank after the keeper darted off his line to deny clean-through Greaves.
Birmingham had little to show for their attacking efforts and a careless attempt by substitute Ryan Woods, which he sliced high and wide, summed up their afternoon in front of goal.
Then came Chong's lob after he controlled Kristian Pedersen's deep cross at the far post.
Defences were on top and in the end Hull will be disappointed they did not come away with three points, given they had the better chances.
Birmingham's Lee Bowyer: "From what I understand the pitch isn't too good - it's really bobbly, but that's no excuse. The pitch was really lively - it's firm. We couldn't even do just simple passes today - Onel Hernandez was in, the Gary Gardner pass - a simple pass and he overhit it. Then vice versa.
"We got into some great positions, especially second half, but it was just that bit of quality lacking, that final bit. If we can improve on that - and I've said it a few times this season - we will create and score more goals. It wasn't very pretty. It was two groups of honest lads working hard but I think the quality wasn't there for both teams. It was disappointing because we had some good players on the pitch. But we had too many that had an off day on the same day. That's life."
Hull's Shota Arveladze: "The good thing was both teams tried to win and I think in the first half we did well and could have scored. That was probably the reason why they changed their system at half-time because we'd been better than them and they came back as a back four. Even in the second half, we didn't hold the ball as long as we wished but we still created two or three chances to score.
"For long parts of the first half we did well and in the second half was a little bit like a game of up and down - we get the ball, they get the ball and it was a bit rushed from both sides. That's why I'm happy with a point. It could have been 1-0 or 0-0. It was a game where I think the team that scored first would have maybe got a second and a third."
