Town’s home game with table-propping Bolton Wanderers remains 0-0 at half-time.
The Blues returned to the 3-5-2 system in which they started the season with skipper Luke Chambers returning after his ankle injury and midfielder Tom Adeyemi making his first start for the Blues. However, Jonas Knudsen missed out having picked up an injury in training earlier in the week.
Skipper Chambers was joined in a back three by Jordan Spence and Dominic Iorfa with home debutant Callum Connolly at right wing-back and Myles Kenlock on the left. Bartosz Bialkowski was in goal.
Adeyemi was in central midfield alongside Cole Skuse with Grant Ward ahead of them, while David McGoldrick joined Joe Garner up front.
Martyn Waghorn and Flynn Downes dropped to the bench having started at QPR last week alongside Freddie Sears, Bersant Celina, who didn't train for several days this week due to a dead leg, and Tristan Nydam, who is back after suffering a knock while away with the England U19s.
After a scruffy start, the Blues hit the game’s first shot in the 11th minute. McGoldrick found Kenlock to his left on the edge of the area and the wing-back hit a right-footed shot which deflected behind. From the resultant corner, Garner and Bolton keeper Ben Alnwick both required treatment after a clash of heads.
Bolton, who had started in a 3-4-3 formation, threatened for the first time a minute later, Filipe Morais whipping over a dangerous freekick from the left which David Wheater was close to reaching before Garner eventually cleared.
On the quarter hour Iorfa won the ball just inside the Town half and brought it forward at pace but overhit his pass to McGoldrick to his right. The striker turned back to the on-loan Wolves man who fouled a Bolton defender as he looked to find space to shoot. At the other end, Noone hit a shot from the edge of the box over the bar.
The former Cardiff man struck an effort straight at Bialkowski when given space just outside the box on 21, then Kenlock worked himself an opportunity at the other end but his strike, again with his less-favoured right foot, was blocked.
Noone continued to be Bolton’s main threat, hitting a shot which deflected wide on 25 with Chambers doing well to get his head to the corner. McGoldrick eventually cleared by leaving a Wanderers player in his wake with a clever bit of skill on the edge of the box before almost finding Garner with a 40-yard cross-field pass but a defender cut it out.
Skuse made an important interception for the Blues on 27 after Chambers had misjudged a bouncing ball in the centre circle and surrendered possession to Wheater. The former England U21 international defender fed Madine, who looked to play skipper Jem Karacan in on goal but Skuse had tracked back and slid in to cut out his pass.
Bialkowski was forced into his first serious save of the game in the 33rd minute, the Pole pawing Madine’s snap shot from 25 yards out on the left behind at his near post.
The Blues weren’t too far away from opening the scoring in the 41st minute when Iorfa rose highest to meet a Ward corner from the left. The England U21 international nodded the ball into the ground but wide.
In the final scheduled minute of the half, the season-long loanee from Wolves won the ball in the air again, this time from a Ward freekick on the right - awarded after Antonee Robinson had clattered into Connolly’s ankle from behind - but his header was straight at Alnwick.
Following a Bolton corner, from which Connolly picked up another knock as he looked to clear, referee Andy Madley ended what had been an evenly balanced half.
It had been largely a battling midfield-dominated period of few chances with neither keeper particularly tested.
Town had looked at their most dangerous when McGoldrick got on the ball in the Bolton half, while Kenlock had been a threat on the left.
Town: Bialkowski, Spence, Chambers (c), Iorfa, Connolly, Skuse, Adeyemi, Ward, Kenlock, McGoldrick, Garner. Subs: Gerken, Waghorn, Celina, Sears, Downes, Nydam, Woolfenden.
Bolton: Alnwick, Wheater, Burke, Beevers, Little, Karacan (c), Cullen, Robinson, Noone, Madine, Morais. Subs: Howard, Taylor, Dervite, Le Fondre, Wilbraham, Armstrong, Pratley. Referee: Andy Madley (West Yorkshire).