Championship: Sheffield United 0-0 Birmingham City – Blades held to goalless draw

For a goalless draw, it was not actually that bad a game – a furiously competitive scrap, as Blues again demonstrated their determination to be hard to beat on their travels.

But, for all the oohs and ahhs, especially when Blues left-back Alex Cochrane was involved down the flank, there was just so very little real genuine goal threat.

In fact, before the break, the stats said neither side managed a single effort on target.

Carlos Vicente and Cochrane both had powerful goalbound efforts blocked, while Bright Osayi-Samuel was just wide with a low left-foot curler.

The visitors ought to have gone in front when Jhon Solis split the Blades back line to work in Vicente, but the Spaniard unselfishly but wrongly tried to square for August Priske, allowing Blades defender Japhet Tanganga the chance to recover.

And it took 71 minutes for the Blades to get any sort of effort remotely on target, before the best chance of the game finally came.

Bamford, so often lethal in such situations, was put clean through down the inside-right channel only to be denied by Beadle at his near post – and that confirmed Birmingham’s first goalless draw since February and United’s since even longer ago, last November.