Brentford 0-0 Birmingham City - Bees' stuttering promotion form continues
- Published
Gary Gardner went closest to scoring for Birmingham when his early chance came back off the post
Brentford saw their Championship automatic promotion hopes take another dent as relegation-threatened Birmingham City held them to a goalless draw.
The Bees have now drawn four matches in a row and are nine points behind second-placed Watford after Blues goalkeeper Neil Etheridge kept them at bay with a string of fine saves.
Birmingham also went close themselves as Gary Gardner had their best chance early on when his shot from close range came back off the base of the post.
Lee Bowyer's side are seven points above the bottom three, but have played four more games than 22nd-placed Rotherham.
Bowyer has helped Birmingham pick up two wins and a draw from his first four matches since taking charge last month but they will face some crucial fixtures in their last six games, including against fellow strugglers Rotherham and Derby County.
For Brentford, their draw also means leaders Norwich are even closer to securing their return to the Premier League with the Canaries 17 points ahead of third place.
The Championship's top scorer Ivan Toney was twice prevented from adding to his 28 league goals as Etheridge was on hand to make smart saves in either half.
Bryan Mbeumo also had a deft header from an Emi Marcondes cross pawed away while Mathias Jensen and Sergi Canos failed to hit the target with two good chances in the first half.
The hosts also had an appeal for a penalty early in the second half turned down when Mads Roerslev went to ground in the area when trying to get on the end of a Mads Sorensen cross.
Just five points now separate the third-placed Bees and Bournemouth in seventh, with those two, plus Swansea, Barnsley and Reading set to battle it out for the four play-off spots.
Brentford head coach Thomas Frank BBC Radio London:
"I'm always down when we're not winning games and I'm very rarely pleased with a draw.
"I think we created enough chances and opportunities to win the game and we've played on a higher level offensively than we did today. We have dominated the ball more in other games.
"We need to be better at that, but if you look at the last three games, I think we've done more than enough to win each one.
"In games like this, you need to have that cutting edge in the final third and I think we lack that at this moment in time."
Birmingham City head coach Lee Bowyer told BBC WM:
"It's a massive point, to come here and leave with anything you've got to have done a lot of things right and we did.
"We took a bit of a risk tonight with a couple of selections, but you've got to trust your players and learning more and more about them all the time.
"They're a tough side, they move the ball so quick, but I think we limited them to efforts from range most of the time.
"Neil (Etheridge) did very well. When called upon, he was superb and that's two clean sheets in a row now which is highly vital.
"We've proven people wrong so far, we've picked up seven massive points. But the most important thing now is that we maintain that level, attitude, fight and togetherness and we'll always have chances to win games."