Town’s opening game of the season at Birmingham City remains 0-0 at half-time.
Chieo Ogbene was handed his first start since October last year and Leif Davis was fit to start at left-back following his hip problem, but neither Omari Hutchinson nor Jaden Philogene were in the squad.
Ogbene, who ruptured achilles ligaments in last season’s away game at Brentford, started on the right of the three behind striker George Hirst with Jack Clarke on the left and Sammie Szmodics in the middle.
Azor Matusiwa made his Town debut in midfield alongside Jack Taylor ahead of a back four of, from the right, Ben Johnson, playing his first league game outside the Premier League, new skipper Dara O’Shea, Jacob Greaves and Davis. Alex Palmer was in goal.
Philogene was absent having picked up an ankle injury at Auxerre last week, while Hutchinson, the subject of transfer speculation, missed out with a throat infection.
New signings Ashley Young and Cedric Kipre were on the bench, as was Nathan Broadhead, a Wrexham target, and young midfielder Fin Barbrook, in a matchday squad for a competitive game for the first time.
The home crowd, still ebullient from last year’s record-breaking 111-point League One title, made plenty of noise before kick-off and as the game got under way.
And with that backing firmly behind them, Birmingham saw virtually all of the ball in the early stages but without threatening.
A Town free-kick from the right was sent in by Taylor but came to nothing, Clarke harshly adjudged to have fouled a defender beyond the back post.
In the seventh minute, sections of the home crowd were on their feet cheering after Kyogo Furuhashi looped the ball over Palmer and into the net but referee Andrew Kitchen had already blown up as the Japanese international had jumped into Greaves in order to win the ball, catching him with an arm.
On 22, Kyogo, a persistent niggling presence for the Town centre-halves, was found on the left of the box, but scraped his shot into the side-netting.
Four minutes later, with the game having become a scruffy affair with plenty of fouls, mostly from Town, Taylor and Birmingham debutant Bright Osayi-Samuel were both booked for a minor dust-up on the touchline following a challenge.
Moments later, good work from Hirst led to a Szmodics break towards the area but another Birmingham debutant, Phil Neumann, got across to put it out for Town’s first corner of the match.
Szmodics had made a good start but the former Blackburn man missed a very good chance to put the Blues in front in the 25th minute. Birmingham skipper Christop Klarer passed back to keeper Ryan Allsop, who played it straight to Szmodics just outside the area but the Ireland international shot wide of the target.
Just after the half hour, some sharp Birmingham passing ended with Tomoki Iwata playing a ball forward into the area to one-time Town target Jay Stansfield, but the England U21 international blazed well over having had time to set himself.
Moments later, Town had their second clear opening of the evening. A long O’Shea pass played in Davis on the left, the full-back broke into the box in front of his man but hit his shot with the inside of his left boot rather than the outside and sent it across goal rather than over Allsop and into the net.
On 40, Keshi Anderson scuffed a shot through to Palmer after Town had lost the ball playing out from the left, then moments later they surrendered it again, Stansfield scraping a shot from the edge wide when the striker should have done much better.
In the 43rd minute Matusiwa, who was struggling with the pace of the game, lost possession a few yards inside the Birmingham half, then pulled back Anderson and was yellow-carded. Demarai Gray, making his second debut for the club, shot straight at Palmer from 30 yards.
In the second minute of two added on, Johnson crossed from the right and Taylor flicked a header across goal and wide. A decent chance, if not as good as the earlier ones for Szmodics and Davis.
That was the last action of a half which the home side had dominated in the early stages without seriously threatening, aside from Kyogo’s disallowed goal.
The period became scrappier as it reached its midway point, before the Blues began to find their feet more but without ever really taking control.
Despite that, Town will feel they had the better chances with Szmodics and Davis spurning opportunities they ought to have taken.
Birmingham City: Allsop, Osayi-Samuel, Neumann, Klarer (c), Cochrane, Tomoki, Paik, Gray, Stansfield, Anderson, Furuhashi. Subs: Beadle, Laird, Bielik, Doyle, Leonard, Dykes, Willumsson, Gardner-Hickman, Cashin.
Town: Palmer; Johnson, O’Shea (c), Greaves, Davis, Matusiwa, Taylor; Ogbene, Szmodics, Clarke, Hirst. Subs: Walton, Kipre, Woolfenden, Chaplin, Young, Al-Hamadi, Humphreys, Broadhead, Barbrook. Referee: Andrew Kitchen (Durham).