Middlesbrough 0-0 Birmingham City

Middlesbrough remain second in the table, with Birmingham just outside the play-off spots

Middlesbrough and Birmingham City played out a goalless draw in difficult conditions at the Riverside Stadium.

Boro's Grant Leadbitter saw a shot come back off the inside of the post in a first half low on shots on goal.

The game opened up after the break with Cristhian Stuani squandering a great chance for the hosts, while Jonathan Grounds, Demarai Gray and Michael Morrison missed the target for Blues.

Home striker David Nugent was sent off in the last minute for violent conduct.

The former England man saw red after throwing Blues defender Stephen Gleeson to the floor seconds before the final whistle.

The closest Boro came to scoring was inside the first 15 minutes when Leadbitter picked up the ball after a defensive mistake by Jonathan Spector and hit a low effort against the woodwork.

Blues made a bright start to the second half with Maikel Kieftenbeld firing just over from 25 yards and Morrison going close from a corner.

Boro responded positively and defender Daniel Ayala headed straight at Tomasz Kuszczak before Stuani fired wastefully off-target when well-placed.

The visitors had lost their last three games, but threatened to take the lead when Grounds and Gray sent shots just wide within moments of one another before the latter forced a good save from Dimi Konstantopoulos.

Morrison should have won it when he headed wide late on before Nugent was sent off for the first time since September 2006.

Middlesbrough boss Aitor Karanka:

"I'm disappointed because it's difficult playing at home always trying to win games, against sides that are wasting time.

"So you can understand his (Nugent's) frustration, but you have to learn not to do that. He knows he's made a mistake but it's up to the other players on Tuesday to make up for this.

"We should have scored four goals in the first half. We created chances but didn't take them. The conditions with the wind and the rain didn't help but we still created a lot of chances.

"Birmingham created chances too, but I sent the team out with the message not to make any mistakes because the conditions weren't easy.

Birmingham manager Gary Rowett:

"Overall on the balance of play, we knew Boro would have more possession, with the way we play most teams will do that, but we limited them and our chances were the better ones.

"The conditions made the game difficult, but that's as good an away performance as we've had all we've had all season and that's saying a lot with the way we've played away this season.

"We were back to what we're good at today, we were strong defensively, much better than for the past few games and with better finishing I'm sure we would have won.

"Our challenge is to make sure getting into the top six isn't our only achievement."

Birmingham defender Neal Eardley was booked inside the opening four minutes but managed to avoid picking up a second yellow

Daniel Ayala missed a good chance to score his third goal of the season

Gary Rowett saw his side end their run of three consecutive defeats