Blues made it two games unbeaten and successive clean sheets with a decent point from today's goalless draw against Stoke City at St. Andrew's.

Both sides worked hard on a sunny afternoon in the Second City but there were few clear-cut chances in a match when the respective defences were in the ascendancy.

Garry O'Connor went the closest for Blues with a header in the second half but was denied by a flying save from Thomas Sorensen.

Alex McLeish made three changes to his Blues side, two of which were enforced. Gregory Vignal and Cameron Jerome failed to shrug off their midweek injuries sustained against Portsmouth and were replaced by Stuart Parnaby and Kevin Phillips respectively.

One other difference from the team that beat Pompey was Lee Bowyer being recalled following suspension to midfield with Seb Larsson dropping down to the bench.

As expected, Tony Pulis brought back Liam Lawrence and last season's top scorer Ricardo Fuller from the Stoke side that lost 4-0 to Liverpool with Dean Whitehead and Richard Cresswell making way.

Phillips had a half-chance after six minutes following James McFadden's nod down but from 12 yards the striker couldn't direct his shot goalwards with the ball bouncing up awkwardly.

Blues made an encouraging start to the game with Franck Queudrue stinging the hands of Thomas Sorensen with an effort from 30 yards on nine minutes.

The visitors suffered an injury blow early on with influential striker James Beattie forced to hobble off after just 11 minutes to be replaced by Dave Kitson.

McFadden was involved again when he cut inside and fired a shot just wide and the Scot had another go moments later with an effort that was deflected for a corner, which subsequently came to nothing.

Highly-rated Stoke defender Ryan Shawcross sent a header over the bar from Danny Higginbotham's cross and Lawrence lost control when well placed in front of goal after a long throw by Rory Delap, as Pulis's side threatened to break the deadlock.

In an exciting end-to-end encounter during the early stages, Garry O'Connor connected to Higginbotham's sliced clearance but the ball fizzed off the Blues striker's shoulder and over thebar.

The Blues defence was dealing well with Delap's dangerous long throws which looked like the visitors' most likely route to goal as the half drew to a close.

The second half continued in the same vein with Delap continuing to pepper the Blues penalty area with long throws and at the other end the Blues strikers were seeing little of the ball.

McLeish attempted to inject some verve into his side's attacking play with the introduction of big summer signing Christian Benitez just eight minutes after the interval.

But it was Stoke's Fuller who had the next chance as he raced into area but didn't get any power into his shot which was easily saved by Joe Hart.

And Fuller was involved again when he headed over after Matthew Etherington's in-swinging free-kick caused confusion in the Blues defence.

McLeish made his second change just after the hour with Larsson introduced in place of Bowyer and it almost paid immediate dividends.

Benitez won a free-kick wide on the left and Larsson's cross was flicked goalwards by O'Connor but Sorensen was just able to claw the ball off the line.

This was the spark that Blues needed and a crazy few seconds ensued in which the home side had good shouts for a free-kick and a penalty turned down.

The Blues fans began to find their voice and the game stepped up a gear as a result.

Queudrue did very well to dispossess Fuller with the Stoke striker in full flow towards goals and Kitson headed just wide from Lawrence's cross as the visitors took their turn to try and open the scoring.

And Fuller thought he had got his first goal of the season when he connected to Delap's throw and the ball bounced over the line.

Fortunately, the eagle-eyed referee Chris Foy noticed that the striker had used his hand and booked Fuller as a result.

With time running out Benitez had a chance to run at the Stoke defence but was eventually stopped in his tracks by the impressive Shawcross.

And a great turn from the tricky Ecuadorian set him away again and this time it took a foul from Stoke sub Dean Whitehead to deny him a shooting chance.

Instead it was Larsson who tried his luck with the resultant free-kick but saw his shot blocked by the visitors' wall.

Four minutes of injury-time brought no more chances and both teams had to settle for a point. 

Blues: Joe Hart, Stephen Carr, Stuart Parnaby, Roger Johnson, Franck Queudrue, James McFadden, Lee Bowyer (Sebastian Larsson 61), Barry Ferguson, Keith Fahey, Garry O'Connor, Kevin Phillips (Christian Benitez 53)
Sub not used: Maik Taylor, Giovanny Espinoza, Gary McSheffrey, James O'Shea, Lee Carsley.

Stoke: Thomas Sorensen, Danny Higginbotham, Glenn Whelan, Liam Lawrence, James Beattie (Dave Kitson 11), Ricardo Fuller, Ryan Shawcross, Rory Delap, Abdoulaye Faye, Matthew Etherington (Dean Whitehead 76), Andy Wilkinson.
Subs not used: Steve Simonsen, Andy Griffin, Leon Cort, Danny Pugh, Richard Cresswell.
Booked: Whelan, Fuller, Whitehead

Referee: C Foy

Attendance: 21,694

Voice Mobile Blues Man of the Match: Franck Queudrue