Coventry City 0-0 Birmingham City: St Andrew’s hosts drab goalless draw

Coventry City and Birmingham City were kept goalless at St Andrew’s as the tenants v landlords derby ended in a 0-0 draw for the second time in 2020.

Birmingham striker Lukas Jutkiewicz came closest for the ‘visitors’ but a combination of goalkeeper Marko Marosi and the crossbar kept out his header.

Aitor Karanka’s side climb three places to 14th, while the Sky Blues stay 21st.

This was actually the third draw between the two sides over 90 minutes this year, Blues having been held 2-2 by Coventry in the FA Cup replay in January, before winning on penalties.

But, in the end, the biggest cause of celebration from a well-contested but unexciting game was Coventry earning a first home clean sheet this season.

It was only the second clean sheet in total for Mark Robins’ side since returning to English football’s second tier for the first time in eight years as League One champions in June.

But, having conceded a league-high 23 goals in the Sky Blues’ previous 11 games, this deserved draw halted a sequence of two successive defeats for each side prior to the international break.

Birmingham are back in action on Tuesday with a trip to Luton, while Coventry play the following night, a home game against Cardiff City.

Coventry boss Mark Robins told BBC CWR:

“It was difficult, but we have to take the positives. And we got a clean sheet. Only our second this season and our first at home.

“It was a scrappy second half. We made some changes. And we’ve got to take the point, it’s a building block.

“Marko made a brilliant save to get us a point and obviously we’re missing Matty Godden, who is talismanic for us, but their keeper has made a couple of saves too.”

Birmingham manager Aitor Karanka told BBC WM:

“We are not disappointed. We are not upset. But we have a bad taste in the mouth as we had two or three chances to win this game.

“At least we have that point and we have not conceded goals.

“Most of the teams who have played against us have changed their shape which means that they respect us. It is all part of the onward journey.”