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Match Report
Birmingham v Portsmouth 16 April 2005
stalemate at St Andrews
Birmingham 0 - 0 Portsmouth
Birmingham City and Portsmouth played out a disappointing goalless draw at St Andrews.
Both sides had chances to break the deadlock in the West Midlands, but good goalkeeping and a lack of a quality finish meant the points were shared on the day.
Blues manager boss Steve Bruce made one change to his starting XI, with Australian international Stan Lazaridis recalled to the line-up for Darren Carter.
New Pompey boss Alain Perrin had to make three changes through injury, with Diomansy Kamara, Linvoy Primus and Andy Griffin all replacing the crocked trio of Yakubu Aiyegbeni, Dejan Stefanovic and Matthew Taylor.
Gary O'Neil was recalled to the midfield, with Czech star Patrik Berger making way in the late Saturday kick-off.
The visitors made a confident start in sunny conditions, with Tresor Lomana Lua Lua going close to scoring with a close range header that bounced just wide from O'Neil's cross from the left.
The home side looked a bit lethargic after last week's heroic effort to draw at Chelsea and it was Lazaridis that sprung the home crowd into life with a left foot strike that just flew over the Portsmouth crossbar while O'Neil kept Taylor honest on his goal line with a long-range curling strike from the left.
Lazaridis proved to be Blues' only real threat in the opening 45 minutes and he came close to breaking the deadlock with a fine right foot volley that went just wide of the near post after a fine cross from Damien Johnson.
Emile Heskey was also proving to be a handful in the air for Pompey and he threatened Jamie Ashdown's goal with a close-range header that went over the bar from Walter Pandiani's fine cross from the right. However, a poor first half was summed up in the dying stages when Lazaridis struck a low right foot shot wide of the target, as both sides went into the break at 0-0.
The second half proved to be a bit more entertaining, as both sides worked harder to create chances.
Primus was soon called into action when he needed to clear Heskey's looping header from a ball into the Pompey box off the goal line, as Ashdown failed to beat the England striker in the aerial challenge. Moments later, the visitors created a chance of their on the counter-attack, but O'Neil's strike at goal was well blocked by Taylor.
Birmingham continued to press forward and Ashdown needed to make a fine block with his legs from Pandiani's close range strike before the former Reading custodian did well to claim the ball off the outstretched feet of Mario Melchiot following a Blues corner from the left.
Lazaridis and Pandiani then made way for substitutes Julian Gray and Clinton Morrison for the home side and the Republic of Ireland hit-man was unlucky not to latch onto Arjan De Zeeuw's risky headed back pass to Ashdown in the Pompey box.
Birmingham then wasted another decent goalscoring opportunity when Heskey miscued with a right foot volley from Jermaine Pennant's free kick from the right before Gray failed to test Ashdown after heading goalwards from a flicked corner from the right.
The South Coast club then caused a scare late on when Taylor needed to save from substitute Berger's goal-bound effort. Despite having the majority of the possession, Birmingham's lack of a quality final intro the box proved telling in their struggle to find the back of the net.
Their endeavour was summed up by Melchiot's low cross that flew across the face of Ashdown's goal in injury time. In the end, a 0-0 draw was probably the fairest result to a disappointing 90 minutes of football, as both sides look on course to avoid any relegation trouble before the end of the season.
Report From 
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