Town's must-win game at Burnley remains 0-0 at the break, Tommy Smith having gone close with a header.
Frazer Richardson was handed the right midfield role — rather than the central position anticipated before kick-off - with Paul Anderson missing out with the hamstring injury he aggravated in the 2-2 draw with Bournemouth.
Paul Green came into the centre alongside Cole Skuse with Anthony Wordsworth missing out with the dead leg he suffered on Monday. Luke Hyam remains on the sidelines with a hip flexor strain.
Christophe Berra was back at the heart of the defence with skipper Luke Chambers moving to right-back. Freddie Veseli was on the bench for the first time since he returned from his loan spell at Bury.
Having confirmed their promotion via a 2-0 win against Wigan on Monday, Burnley, wearing a vintage kit to celebrate their 1914 FA Cup win, struck the game’s first shot in the second minute, Scott Arfield’s effort deflecting wide from Danny Ings’s knockdown.
Daryl Murphy hit the first shot of the game for the Blues, who were wearing last season’s white and black away kit, from the edge of the box in the 10th minute but Ben Mee blocked.
Ashley Barnes just failed to reach Ings’s knockdown in the 11th minute as the home fans began a round of applause in tribute to Robbie Williamson, an 11-year-old boy who died earlier in the week after falling in a canal.
On 20 Burnley keeper Tom Heaton came off his line quickly to claim ahead of Stephen Hunt, but largely both keepers had been spectators.
Tommy Smith was booked for a tactical foul on Ings in the 25th minute after Aaron Cresswell had given the ball away midway inside the Blues’ half.
The New Zealand international was close to opening the scoring two minutes later when Kieran Trippier nodded his header off the line and over after Berra had knocked Richardson’s corner from the right back across the edge of the six-yard box.
The Blues were starting to look more dangerous, winning a number of corners. But on the half hour, following one of those Town flagkicks, the Clarets broke quickly but Arfield was unable to direct Michael Kightly’s right-wing cross towards goal. On 33, Gerken claimed Barnes’s shot down to his right.
Burnley skipper Jason Shackell cut out Chambers’s right-sided cross as a rather lacklustre half moved into its final five minutes.
Murphy and Jonny Williams exchanged passes on the left in the 41st minute, the Irishman whipping over a teasing cross to the far post which Richardson couldn’t direct goalwards when under pressure from Kightly.
A minute later, Ings shot in to the side-netting, then Murphy cut in from the right before shooting across the face of goal.
The less than exciting first period was brought to a close with no further significant action.
Town probably had the best chance of the first 45 minutes, with Smith’s header goal-bound until Trippier’s intervention.
But overall the Blues never gave the impression that they were a side desperately in need of three points to stay in the play-off race.
At the other end, Gerken hadn’t been seriously tested, although Burnley frontmen Ings and Barnes had had one or two threatening moments.
Burnley: Heaton, Tripper, Shackell (c), Duff, Mee, Arfield, Marney, Jones, Kightly, Barnes, Ings. Subs: Cisak, Edgar, Wallace, Treacy, Baird, Stanislas, Long.
Town: Gerken, Chambers (c), Cresswell, Berra, Smith, Skuse, Richardson, Green, Hunt, Williams, Murphy. Subs: Loach, Mings, Veseli, Tabb, Taylor, Marriott, Nouble. Referee: James Linington (Newport, Isle of Wight).