READING and Birmingham City played out a drab goalless draw at Madejski Stadium on Tuesday night in a game where both defences were the real winners.
While Birmingham started well, Royals dominated possession and won a host of corners, but only one 25-yard Danny Williams strike called goalkeeper Adam Legzdins into action.
At the other end Blues also struggled to force Ali Al-Habsi into a meaningless stop, bar an early low David Cotterill free kick.
Wasteful crossing proved costly throughout for Reading as Birmingham defended resolutely on a largely forgettable evening.
The draw does at least preserve Jaap Stam’s unbeaten run at Madejski Stadium and extends the unbeaten run to five games in all competitions.
Both sides named two changes to their teams from the weekend as Reading brought in Jordan Obita and Stephen Quinn for Tyler Blackett and George Evans while Birmingham replaced Clayton Donaldson and Jacques Maghoma with David Cotterill and Lukas Jutkiewicz.
However, before the game had even kicked off both managers had to rethink their sides as Blues goalkeeper Tomasz Kuszczak and Royals midfielder Joey van den Berg suffered injuries in the warm-up. Legzdins and Evans stepped in respectively.
And it was the two original replacements for Birmingham who almost combined for the opening goal.
After Paul McShane was beaten for pace and took down Che Adams, Cotterill whipped a low free kick towards the near post which was diverted goalward by Jutkiewicz, but Al-Habsi saved well.
Chances were at a premium but the Blues were almost gifted an opener when Al-Habsi flapped at a corner, knocking it straight to the feet of Jutkiewicz but the former Burnley man fired over.
From the 20th minute on, Reading grew into the game and hogged possession, carving out a number of good openings without really testing stand-in stopper Legzdins.
Williams came closest, firing a stinging drive towards the bottom corner from around 22 yards which was held at the second attempt.
Yann Kermorgant saw a shot deflected wide while Che Adams’ effort on a counter attack was comfortably held.
The momentum swung back Birmingham’s way immediately after the restart with a number of crosses causing problems but McShane and Kermorgant in particular did well to clear.
There was another nervy moment for Royals when Maikel Kieftenbeld’s shot from outside the box deflected and was parried by Al-Habsi but Jutkiewicz was offside for the rebound.
But Reading grew back into the game and began controlling the contest again.
The corner count continued to rise but McCleary could not quite pick out a man in blue and white until persistence paid off with McShane finding room for a free header, but it was blocked.
Jaap Stam threw on John Swift, Callum Harriott and Joseph Mendes in an attempt to find a winner while Clayton Donaldson was among those introduced for the visitors.
But in truth, the changes made little impact as the game drifted to a goalless conclusion.
READING (ratings out of 10): Al-Habsi 6; Gunter 7, McShane (c) 7.5, Evans 8*, Moore 7.5, Obita 7; McCleary 5.5 (Harriott 82 n/a), Williams 6, Quinn 6.5 (Swift 72 6), Beerens 5.5 (Mendes 86 n/a); Kermorgant 6.5.
Subs not used: Jaakkola, Watson, Blackett.
BIRMINGHAM: Legzdins; Spector, Morrison (c), Shotton, Grounds; Cotteril, Kieftenbeld, Tesche (Maghoma 67), Davis; Jutkiewicz (Donaldson 76), Adams (Fabbrini 81).
Subs not used: Trueman, Robinson, Brown, Stewart.
Referee: Christopher Kavanagh
Attendance: 14,602 (inc. 1,186 away)
