Swansea City 0-0 Birmingham City: Swans hold out for draw

Birmingham had failed to win on any of their last 11 league trips to Wales, conceding three or more goals in five of the previous six such fixtures

Birmingham were held by Swansea City at the Swansea.com Stadium with the visitors missing several opportunities to win a match they largely dominated.

Birmingham missed two golden chances in the first half with Juninho Bacuna and Tahith Chong both failing to hit the target from close range.

Maxime Colin rattled the crossbar in the second half, with Swansea dominant in possession but creating few chances.

Joel Piroe had their best efforts, but Swansea never looked like scoring.

The draw sees Birmingham rise one place to 19th in the Championship, while Swansea slip one spot to 16th, a place and two points above Cardiff City.

Swansea boss Russell Martin made two changes to the side that won in midweek against Peterborough United with Finley Burns in for the injured Flynn Downes and Olivier Ntcham replacing Jamie Paterson.

Martin had intended to bring Ntcham into the team at the expense of Korey Smith, but Paterson was injured in the pre-match warm-up in a further blow to a small squad.

Birmingham manager Lee Bowyer warned his players after their 2-0 defeat against Middlesbrough that he was planning a squad shake-up this summer and he underlined that point by making five changes to his starting XI.

It was the visitors who will feel they should have taken the lead in a lively opening 20 minutes as they missed a huge chance to score when Chong had a clear run to goal and squared for Bacuna, who fired well over the crossbar from inside the six-yard box.

Blues skipper Gary Gardner then tested Andy Fisher with a firm shot after he cut inside and easily beat Ben Cabango to the ball, but Fisher parried clear.

Former Cardiff goalkeeper Neil Etheridge was called into action on 16 minutes as he saved Piroe's low shot, with loanee Cyrus Christie - who has indicated a desire to stay with the Swans - firing the rebound over the crossbar.

Swansea had over 70% possession in the first half but it was the visitors who created the clearer chances with Chong also missing from extremely close range after Onel Hernandez beat his marker and delivered a cross right across the face of Fisher's goal.

Chong was involved in everything for the Blues and his shot from distance on 55 minutes was held by FIsher, before Hernandez shot over and Scott Hogan headed straight at the Swans goalkeeper.

Birmingham had created more than enough opportunities to open the scoring and they missed another golden chance on 62 minutes when Colin rattled the crossbar from extremely close-range after he was left unmarked on the back post from a corner.

Swansea were far from their best ahead of their visit to bitter rivals Cardiff next time out and increasingly looked to be hanging on for a point when Fisher saved smartly from Hogan's header.

Birmingham kept pushing and Marc Roberts' fantastic cross split Swansea's defence, but Nico Gordon could not stretch enough to get a vital touch on the ball, while Gardner's header was saved.

The hosts barely created anything in the second half, but almost stole the points in the 89th minute when Piroe fired straight at Etheridge.

Swansea had double the possession of the visitors, but the Blues were by far the more threatening side, but could not find the goal that would have earned them a first league double over Swansea in 42 years.

Swansea City boss Russell Martin told BBC Sport Wales:

"I didn't enjoy the game. We lacked a bit of zip and energy. The players have given everything they've got. I think there was a time we would have lost that game.

"We've had 21 hours on the bus this week. We got back at 3am on Thursday. I'm pretty sure that explains today.

"We tried to guard against it. But it never got going. We didn't give the supporters enough to work off.

"It also shows the importance of having depth next season. We haven't got enough. It's something we need to address. I love the group of players we've got but we need a few specialists in certain areas."

Birmingham City boss Lee Bowyer said:

"We did everything but score, it is clear to see we should have won the game, I think we missed three chances from about two yards out.

"First half and second half we had clear-cut chances and I don't mean half-chances, I mean clear chances that are harder to miss than to score.

"We deserved the three points and we were the better side, I was happy with their reaction to midweek.

"I said I wanted to see a reaction and today for sure we were back to ourselves. The only thing we didn't get was three points, but overall our performance was good."