Luton Town 0-0 Birmingham City: John Eustace's up-for sale Blues grind out opening-day draw
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Former Watford striker Troy Deeney had only played once at Kenilworth Road before, with Walsall in March 2008
Birmingham City made an encouraging start to life under new boss John Eustace as they avoided defeat at last season's beaten Championship play-off semi-finalists Luton.
In a game of few chances, Blues managed just one shot on target.
But new boss Eustace, who only took over at the beginning of July, had four of his five summer signings making their debut - and an away point is an encouraging start for a club who have spent most of the summer with speculation surrounding potential new ownership.
Blues have twice done the double over the Hatters in the past three seasons. Despite 28 points separating Birmingham, in 20th, from sixth-placed Luton last season, Blues won the two meetings between them 8-0 on aggregate, starting 11 months ago with a 5-0 win at Kenilworth Road.
But this was a much quieter afternoon for the Luton defence by comparison.
Luton came close to breaking the deadlock when, from James Bree's early free-kick, new Blues keeper John Ruddy cleared with his legs - and Jordan Clark lashed the rebound over, before summer signing Luke Freeman tested Ruddy again with a scuffed shot.
Juninho Bacuna dragged wide for Blues, who went close when the overlapping Maxime Colin's drilled effort was parried away by Luton keeper Ethan Horvath, who had to punch out an inswinging corner from underneath his own bar. And the US international Horvath did well to deal with Blues' best effort, a dipping snapshot from 22 yards from another of their new boys, Przemyslaw Placheta.
Bree was wide with a 25-yard free-kick before Carlton Morris took too much time after being sent away by Walsall old boy Elijah Adebayo.
Morris continued to threaten on his debut, outpacing his marker to bend a shot that flew inches wide, before then testing Ruddy from distance.
Luton midfielder Allan Campbell was denied when Bree's cross was nicked off his toes by an alert Ruddy and then substitute Harry Cornick could only find the side-netting late on.
Luton Town boss Nathan Jones:
"It was a hard-fought game. We had the better of the chances. Some real good chances, but I couldn't have asked more from them. They tried right until the end.
"We're lacking a little bit of sharpness, which is understandable, as we had two weeks less than everyone. We had to come back, we've had a five-week pre-season, so a little bit of sharpness was lacking really. We must have had 12-15 set-plays.
"We didn't take a point off these last year, so at least if we take the same points we did off everyone else, we'll actually be in a better position."
Birmingham City boss John Eustace:
"We've been in the building three weeks. There's been a lot of hard work on the training field and think you can see good signs coming out against really tough opponents.
"I don't think we could have asked for a more difficult opening fixture, away at Luton, who have just had a magnificent season, with a really good squad, who have got fantastic experience.
"I was very proud of the defensive display from the boys. Collectively they were in the right areas. They defended the box for their lives. The last three weeks have been tough for the boys, but it's all been structured in how we want to defend - and we're pleased with the performance."