Wycombe 0-0 Birmingham: Goalless at Adams Park as Blues finish with 10 men

Birmingham were left frustrated by a terrific performance from Wycombe goalkeeper Ryan Allsop as they came away from Adams Park with a 0-0 draw.

Given this clash was between two of the lowest scorers in the Championship, it was never likely to be a goal-fest, but the Blues had the best chances to claim the spoils and haul themselves further clear of the bottom three.

Unfortunately for them, Allsop had an inspired night between the posts for the division's bottom club and the visitors' frustrations eventually boiled over, as they had defender Marc Roberts sent off late on.

Wycombe gave debuts to new signings Jordan Obita and Nnamdi Ofoborh, while striker Sam Cosgrove began life at Birmingham on the bench, following his arrival from Aberdeen last weekend.

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Beneath a deluge, the early stages largely passed both teams by, although Blues goalkeeper Neil Etheridge did have one nervous moment when he misjudged a bouncing ball in his own area.

Lukas Jutkiewicz had the first shot of real note halfway through the first half, as his powerful strike on the turn from 25 yards was beaten away by Allsop.

The hosts then came close themselves soon after, as Fred Onyedinma's corner was nodded back across by Ryan Tafazolli and Admiral Muskwe's header was helped over by Etheridge.

The match was just starting to warm up by the half-hour mark, with Ivan Sunjic sending a well-struck half-volley just wide for the Blues.

The Croatian then sent another warning shot across Wycombe's bows just off target, after the Chairboys had made a mess of getting the ball away from their own area.

Etheridge then came to his side's rescue again, as he reacted superbly to keep out Uche Ikpeazu's deflected shot, as Tafazolli had got his head to another Onyedinma set-piece.

That helped keep the scoreline blank at half-time, while a terrific one-handed save from Allsop prevented the deadlock from being broken eight minutes after the restart, as he sprung to his left to keep out Mikel San Jose's header.

The standard drifted back into the scrappy fare that was served up in the opening stages, with the two goalkeepers becoming bystanders once again.

That finally changed after 74 minutes when Jeremie Bela's brilliant cross from the right was met by Maxime Colin, only for Allsop to somehow claw away his header from point-blank range.

Birmingham lost Roberts to a red card with three minutes left after he hacked down Onyedinma as he threatened to sprint away from him.

There was still time for one more chance for the Blues, but Gary Gardner could only flick a header from Bela's corner over the top.

What the managers said...

Wycombe's Gareth Ainsworth: "It wouldn't have looked out of place in League Two - no disrespect to League Two, but there was very limited moments of quality out there. I think what was Premier League was probably the two goalkeepers - I think both made what were match-saving saves. Ryan Allsop has made a couple and Neil Etheridge had one in the first half that was deflected and he was going the wrong way to start with, that was an unbelievable save.

"I think if anyone comes out with credit, it's the goalkeepers and that's usually the story of a 0-0. I'm pleased after Saturday [when Wycombe lost 7-2 at Brentford] because we progressed a great deal and that was important. Either team nicking it would have been unjust - they probably had the share of the chances over us, but I'm pleased that we've battled well against a very strong Birmingham side."

Birmingham's Aitor Karanka: "When I came here, I knew it was going to be a tough season. It's impossible to think about being in a higher position when the team was going in the way it was going last year. We brought in players without spending money, and in the market we bought players without spending the money that other teams had.

"We're not complaining, it's just to show the reality for everybody. We knew it was going to be difficult and it's been difficult, so we'll just keep going. It's a shame because we played a good game, we had a lot of chances and from our chances their keeper was super and we didn't score. It's difficult to accept, once again, when we're playing like we did today and we are not winning games, but it is time to keep a strong mentality, to keep going because once again we have shown we are creating chances."

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